Young Justice Watches 'Young Justice!
by RedAlert98
Summary: Due to Copyright/Content Guideline Issues, story has been discontinued - so sorry everyone.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do NOT own Young Justice, and claim no ownership or rights to it! No copyright intended, just having some fun with my favorite heroes.

ITALICS ARE THE EPISODE (which I do not claim ownership to)

Non-italics are the team's reaction.

* * *

"Um, guys?" Wally asked his teammates at the Cave. Connor was wrestling with Wolf, Artemis and M'gann were engaged in a serious conversation that they vehemently denied was 'girl talk', and Robin was fixing the gaming console under the TV while chatting with Kaldur.

Everyone turned their attention to the speedster, who sounded very confused and wary. "That wasn't there a second ago." he stated, pointing to a plain brown box sitting on the kitchen table. Looking closer at it, he saw, in plain black font, 'Young Justice' printed on the top of it.

Robin was behind him with his wrist computer out, face set in a determined expression. "It's not a bomb, but the readings I'm getting are faint traces of would have to be magic. No other explanation." He gave Wally a nod that meant to open it; what was revealed was a flash drive, which he handed to Robin. The rest of the team was tightly crowded around them by now.

"If 'Young Justice' means what I think it means, this is either footage or files." Robin told them grimly. "Of us." The team exchanged looks of surprise, bewilderment, anger, and shock.

"Should we...contact the League?" M'gann asked, to which Robin immediately replied, "No!" to everyone's surprise. "Sorry, but no - if we were to contact them now and give it to them, we'd never find out what is on it. We either find out now or never."

And with that he tossed it to Artemis, who had moved close to the TV; she plugged it into a port as everyone took seats on the couches. Curiosity was rolling off of everyone in waves.

There was static for a moment until...

 _Gotham Park came up as the text GOTHAM CITY July 4 12:00 EDT rolled on, then off, the screen._

Robin narrowed his eyes, recognizing the scene in front of him, while Wally's face was set with sudden realization. Kaldur softly exclaimed 'oh!", Connor looked at the screen warily since he knew what that date meant, and M'gann and Artemis were completely intrigued and curious as to what would happen - neither had been on the team at that time...

 _People were grilling out, enjoying the sunny day when the crowd started screaming and running; Mr . Freeze made his presence known._

The girls gasped as people were frozen - "Did they die?!" M'gann exclaimed, but Robin reassured her that they were able to save everyone that day.

 _"Enjoying family time? My family has other plans" Mr Freeze declared, as he froze people with his freeze gun. Suddenly a batarang was thrown at Freeze - "Batman, I was wondering when..." he trailed off, as an eerie laugh echoed somewhere behind him.'_

Robin's teammates started getting excited, knowing things wouldn't end well for Freeze. Meanwhile, the red-clad hero was wracking his brain, trying to remember any cameras, and how they possibly could have been there.

 _On screen, Robin was reflected off of Freeze's helmet, jumped on it, flipped off, then landed while launching two birdarangs, effectively taking Freeze off of his feet and cracking his helmet._

Wally grinned at seeing his best friend in action, while the girls were yelling abuse at and cheering for their favorite bird-brain.

 _"Oh - Boy Wonder. The Bat sent you to drag me off to prison. Frankly I'm underwhelmed."_

Everyone laughed at how unfazed, and frankly, unimpressed Robin looked. Apparently, the feeling of being 'underwhelmed' was mutual.

 _"Great, but I'm kinda in a hurry here." Robin replied, gesturing impatiently._

"Was so not in the mood for a villain monologue," Robin commented, rolling his eyes behind his shades.

 _"Kids, always in such a rush" Freeze said, but in a singsong voice Robin went, "Not talking to youuu!"_

This cracked everyone on the team up as Robin looked sheepish - how typical of the youngest hero on the team. However, laughter turned to 'whoa!' and exclamations of surprise as Batman epically flew into the fight, shattering Freeze's helmet with a single punch.

"Helluva entrance!" Artemis exclaimed, totally impressed.

"Wait," Wally said, "You weren't talking to Freeze, which means that when you said 'kinda in a hurry here', you were basically telling Batman to hurry the frickety frack up?" Robin's teammates looked at him in shock - nobody, on the League or otherwise, tells THE Batman, to 'hurry up'.

Unless, apparently, you are Robin. Everyone just shook their head in disbelief.

 _The scene switched to Star City, July 4, 09:01 PDT as 'Junior' caused mayhem on a bridge with his ice powers, laughing in the most irritating, cliche way possible._

Wally and Robin began cheering as GA and Speedy started to shoot at Junior. When the young Ice villain made the comment about 'getting a little attention around here', Connor muttered under his breath 'attention whore", causing Robin and Wally to collapse onto each other in fits of laughter.

 _'Junior's doing this for attention?' Speedy asked, 'I'm telling you now, this little distraction better not interfere.'_

Kaldur was enjoying seeing his friend on the screen in action, while Wally and Robin made comments about Roy's attitude, and laughing at it. When Roy leapt into the air to make his knock-out shot, everyone cheered; it was awful impressive, even Artemis clapped a few times.

 _GA chuckled, telling Speedy, "Kid had a glass jaw" to the sidekicks non-amusement. "Hilarious. Can we go - today is the day." Speedy impatiently told his mentor._

 _The scene switched again, to a snowy and freezing Pearl Habor, July 4, 06:02 HST. Aquaman was dodging icy blasts, getting caught in one as Aqualad charged towards their ice villainess._

The team started cheering for Kaldur, who smiled appreciatively.

 _Breaking his icy encasement, Aquaman asked his protege, "Don't tell me youre not excited?", to which Aqualad, who was skillfully dodging icy bursts, replied, "Right now my King, I'm more focused on the matter at hand."_

"Almost there, come on Kal you can do it!' Wally shouted, totally absorbed in the action playing out on the screen as Aqualad jumped into the air.

 _Aqualad caught the icy blast with his water bearers, landed, then brought them up and caught their villain in a knockout swing, effectively taking her down. "Well?" Aquaman asked, to which Aqualad replied, "Yes, I'm excited, today's the day."_

While Connor was asking exactly what they meant by 'today's the day', Artemis was extremely impressed with the fight, and took the time to tell Kaldur so as everyone else was high-fiving Kal, or congratulating him.

"Hey, this just leaves one more, and thats me and Flash!" Wally exclaimed, and sure enough, the scene on screen switched.

 _Central City, July 4, 11:03 CDT. Captain Cold was firing ice at the two Central City speedsters, who were running in a blurred circle around him._

"Ah, what exactly are you guys doing, besides making him dizzy? Artemis asked. Wally simply shot her a look and shushed her, motioning for her to watch.

 _"Stealing ice, seriously? Isn't that even a bit cliche, even for Captain Cold?" Flash asked. A disgruntled looking Kid Flash then went, "Come ooon, we don't have time for this!', then took action himself; putting his goggles on and going for the gusto, He headed towards the ice villain. Dodging ice shot at him, Kid did a 360 degree turn and grabbed the ice pistol halfway through; coming to a screeching stop. Cold's attention was focused on the yellow speedster when a punch, courtesy of The Flash, knocked him out cold. Pun intended._

"Dude that was wicked!" Robin told him, and even Artemis had to be impressed with how Wally handled the situation.

 _"Calm down Kid." Flash told his protege, but Kid Flash retorted with, "Oh, puh-lease, you'll chat it up with the cops, bystanders, with Cold even. No - no way! Today's the day!"_

"See, you're a Speedster, and even you think Flash talks too much - think about how we feel, between the two of you!" Artemis teased as her boyfriend shot her another annoyed look.

 _Washington D.C July 4, 14:00 EDT came onto the screen, showing the famous landmarks and buildings of the nation's capital, and then..._

"The Hall of Justice." Wally and Robin said in unimpressed, slightly scoffing tones. Kaldur sighed, finding that the lack of trust their mentors had in them back then still stung a bit.

 _Robin, Speedy, and Aqualad were all lined up with their mentors next to them, looking at the Hall of Justice. Batman put a hand on Robin's shoulder and told him, 'Today is the day', with an actual smile on his face, as Robin looked up to him with a proud, smug smile as well._

The room erupted with shocked yells and exclamations at Batman smiling, and Wally went on and on about how it "just isn't normal!", and then everyone was giving Robin strange looks as it dawned on them that he was the only one who could actually make the Dark Knight smile. They suddenly wondered what other superpowers Robin had.

 _"Welcome to the Hall of Justice," Green Arrow told the young heroes, "Headquarters of the Justice League." Aquaman finished._

"Lies!" Robin and Wally bellowed, pouting a bit afterwards.

 _"Aw man!" Kid Flash's complained as he and his mentor arrived in a ...Flash. "I knew we'd be the last ones here."_

The team rolled their eyes at this while Wally just groaned.

 _The screen went to black, then showed the Leaguers and their proteges going down the walkway towards the Hall, flocked on each side by tourists._

" _Is that Batman?"_

 _"I see Flash, and Flash Jr.!"_

 _"His name's Speedy - duh."_

 _"No, Speedy's Green Arrow's sidekick!"_

 _"Well that makes no sense."_

The commentary provided by the crowd of tourists had the team in fits of laughter, although Wally was looking very indignant now, and was back to pouting.

 _"Ready to see the inner sanctum?" GA asked Speedy, who quipped, "Born that way."_

 _"I'm glad we're all here." Aqualad stated._

 _"Have all 4 sidekicks ever been at the same place at the same time?" Wally asked, excited at the occasion._

 _"Don't call us sidekicks." Speedy irritably reprimanded Kid Flash, "Not after today."_

 _"Sorry, first time at the Hall, I'm a little overwhelmed." Kid told him._

"I see where this is going!" Artemis yelled, noticing the 'whelmed' theme.

 _"You're overwhelmed, Freeze was underwhelmed, why isn't anyone ever just whelmed?" Robin asked, then Kid Flash gave him a look._

"Called it! Totally called it," the blonde archer congratulated herself.

 _Suddenly they walked into the Main Hall, where enormous bronze colored statues of the League were displayed. "Oh. Maybe that's why." the youngest hero stated._

"That's not seen as a tiny bit conceited?" Connor asked, "I mean, those are enormous statues."

 _Two air lock doors opened up to reveal Red Tornado and Martian Manhunter, who welcomed the young heroes. Martian Manhunter gave his 'welcome' speech, then led the way inside for the heroes; Kid Flash and Robin fist- bumped as they entered, obviously feeling the aster._

"It was the heeeeat of the broment," Artemis sang, enjoying agitating Robin, who shot her a dirty look.

"Hey, look how short you are compared to everyone standing there, oh my gosh!" she suddenly noticed, and pointed it out.

 _"You now have unlimited access to the gym, our fully stocked galley, and of course our library. Make yourselves at home." Manhunter told them, which they did by throwing themselves into the library's lounge chairs._

"HOW did someone get undetectable cameras into the Hall of Justice too?!" Robin yelled, vexed by the whole situation, and Artemis' slur against his height. Wally was simply muttering about the chairs not even being comfortable.

 _"Quick debrief to discuss the coincidence of 4 ice villains attacking on the same day. We shouldn't be long." Batman told them, then turned away as he was recognized for the zeta beam._

"Aaaand here's when shit hit the fan." Robin casually commented. Although he was glad it did, seeing as how it led to one thing and another.

 _'Recognized: Batman, 0-2; Aquaman, 0-6; Flash, 0-4; Green Arrow, 0-8; Martian Manhunter, 0-7; Red Tornado, 1-6" the computer's voice announced, but Speedy drew everyone's attention to himself as he angrily said, "That's it? You promised us a real look inside, not a glorified Backstage pass."_

"I'm sensing a bitch-fit coming on here." Artemis said in a singsong voice. Wally grudgingly had to agree with her, but not before telling her, "Look at it from a different point of view on this deal...it was legit."

 _"It's a first step. You've been granted access few others get." Aquaman tried to appease him._

 _"Oh, really? Who cares which side of the glass we're on?" Speedy exclaimed, gesturing towards the tourists goggling at them and taking pictures through the huge window above._

"There's a video on youtube of Speedy quitting, someone was up there videoing you guys." Connor informed them.

"Ooh, and there's a video of you getting mobbed by tourists!" M'gann added.

"Is that all you guys do in your spare time?" Wally asked, "Look up youtube videos of us?"

"When they're not 'fixing the bikes'" Robin muttered under his breath. Only Connor was able to hear the remark, which he pointedly ignored.

 _"Roy, you just need to be patient." GA told him, but the younger archer retorted, "What I need, is respect."_

"R-E-S-P-E-C-T! Find out what it means to me! Oh a little respect (just a little bit) whoa babe (just a little bit!)" Robin and Wally belted out, laughing when everyone threw pillows at them for the interruption. Which was okay, since they referred to the pillows as 'prisoners of war' and refused to give them back.

 _Turning towards the younger heroes, he said, "They're treating us like kids. Worse-like sidekicks! We deserve better than this." The response he got was clueless looks exchanged between the three younger heroes._

"That whole charade was just insulting." Wally grumbled. Robin was silently fuming again, at the fact that Batman had kept the Watchtower a secret from him.

 _"You're kidding, right? You're playing their game? Why? Today was supposed to be the day, step one in becoming full-fledged members of The League." Speedy angrily exclaimed._

"They were totally taking us for a ride." Wally complained, still feeling insulted. Kaldur and Robin nodded, feeling similar sentiments.

 _"Well, sure, but I thought step one was a tour of the HQ." Kid Flash interjected._

 _"Except the hall isn't The League's real HQ." Speedy dropped the bomb, resulting in completely shocked faces all around. "I bet they never told you it's just a false front for tourists and a pit stop for catching zeta beam teleporter tubes to the real thing, an orbiting satellite, called the watchtower."_

"Ya, that's one little detail they forgot to mention." Artemis scoffed.

 _GA turned to look at Batman as the Dark Knight crossed his arms and glared at the green archer. He was Not. Happy._

 _Abashed, GA went "I know, I know, but I thought maybe we could make an exception?"_

 _Batglare intensifies._

 _"Or not."_

This exchange between the two heroes had the team in hysterics, so bad that they had to pause it until they regained control of their laughter.

 _"You're not helping your cause here, son." Aqualad tried to placate, "Stand down or- "_

 _" - Or what? You'll send me to my room? And I'm not your son! I'm not even his. " Speedy exclaimed in his rising temper. Robin, Kid Flash, and Aqualad all had wide eyes and were watching the blowout, completely shocked at the turn of events._

 _"I thought I was his partner, but not anymore." Speedy continued, throwing his hat on the ground. Turning, he addressed the others; " Guess they're right about you three. You're not ready."_

"Well thanks Roy, that didn't sting at all." Wally sarcastically muttered.

 _Before there was even time for anyone to react, or say something, an alarm went off and Superman appeared on a large screen. "Superman to Justice League. There's been an explosion at project Cadmus. It's on fire," Superman reported._

Looking at Wally, Robin, and Aqualad suspiciously, Artemis asked, "Wasn't there something on the news around that time about a Washington D.C. laboratory building totally collapsing, decimated?"

 _"I've had my suspicions about Cadmus." Batman stated, "This may present the perfect opportunity to in-" but he was cut off as another alert went off, and a very urgent Zatara reported, "Zatara to Justice League. The sorcerer Wotan is using the Amulet of Attan to blot out the sun. Requesting full League response."_

 _"Superman?" Batman asked, to which the Kryptonian replied, "It's a small fire. Local authorities have it under control."_

 _"Then Cadmus can wait. All Leaguers rendezvous at Zatara's coordinates, Batman out."_

 _"Stay put." the Dark Knight ordered the three protege's. Robin instantly challenged him with a, "What? Why?"_

 _"This is a League mission" Aquaman justified, and Flash continued with, "You're not trained -" but Kid Flash interrupted with an indignant, "Since when?", and Flash picked up with, " I meant you're not trained to work as part of this team."_

"Okay, did nobody else notice how high their voices went in indignation right there?" Artemis smugly asked the team; Robin discreetly flipped her off.

It was all in good fun though.

 _"There will be other missions when you're ready." Aquaman told them._

 _With a tone of finality, Batman ordered, "But for now, Stay. Put."_

"Okay just to clear things up, that may have been an order but sounded like a death threat to me." Wally told the team. Connor snorted in amusement while the girls laughed, and Robin rolled his eyes, telling Wally to quit being such a drama queen.

 _"Glad you didn't bring you know who?" GA asked Martian Manhunter, who replied with a solemn,"Indeed."_

"Well that's not nice to call M'gann Voldemort!" Robin exclaimed, while Wally insisted that Artemis have a serious talk about her mentor about manners.

She shot a rubber band at him, which shut him up.

 _The mentors and fellow League members left, leaving the Robin, Kid Flash, and Aqualad standing there in disbelief and anger._

 _"When we're ready?" the speedster exclaimed, " How are we ever supposed to be ready when they treat us like- like sidekicks?"_

"You really do have a point." M'gann agreed.

"What I'm wondering is how they thought you'd actually sit around and be 'good wittle sidekicks', waiting for them to get back while twiddling your thumbs." Artemis asked, bewildered at how naive the League had been.

 _Looking and sounding very betrayed, Aqualad said, "My mentor, my king, I thought he trusted me."_

 _"Trust?" KF asked, scoffing, " They don't even trust us with the basics! They've got a secret HQ - in SPACE!"_

 _"What else aren't they telling us?" Aqualad stated more than asked. "I have a better question," Robin followed up, "Why didn't we leave with Speedy?"_

"We risk our lives to complete the same mission as them; saving people, and sometimes the world. Their lies and lack of trust were disappointing, to say the least." Aqualad commented.

 _"What is ...project Cadmus?" Aqualad asked, curious._

 _"Don't know, but I can find out." Robin smirked, going over to the computer and typing something in. "Access denied." the computer announced._

The entire team laughed and regarded the computer with pity.

 _"Heh. Wanna bet? Robin rhetorically asked in a tone that clearly said 'I know I won't be beat', as he started to hack._

 _With an awestruck look on his face, Kid Flash went, "Whoa! How are you doing that?"_

 _"Same system as the batcave." Robin smugly told them, all too pleased with himself._

Connor shot Robin a grateful look - if he hadn't hacked the JL systems that day, he probably never would have been rescued.

 _"Access granted." the computer announced._

 _" All right. Project Cadmus. Genetics lab here in D.C. That's all there is...but if Batman's suspicious, maybe we should investigate." Robin told the others, sounding ready to go for it, and wheedling for some partners in crime - er, crime fighting, that is._

"Is this...the founding of the team?" Artemis asked, a bit unsure.

"You're just now picking up on that?" Wally said, answering her question with another one.

"Wow, this ought to be really interesting," M'gann joined in.

"Let's just say we have a lot to thank Robin, Wally, and Kaldur for." Connor said, shooting his friends a smile.

"A great day in history." Robin bragged.

 _"Solve their case before they do. It would be poetic justice." Aqualad suggested._

 _"Hey, heh, They're all about justice." Robin agreed._

 _"But they said stay put." Aqualad said, conflicted._

 _"For the blotting out the sun mission, not this!" Robin continued to convince them._

"Dude, you are sooo manipulative." Wally told his best friend.

"How did you manage to convince yourself that you weren't breaking the rules?! Artemis asked, dubious, "I mean, it was a direct order!"

" _Wait." Kid Flash piped up, "Are you going to Cadmus? Because if you're going, I'm going."_

 _The two flashed Aqualad over-the-top 'winning' smiles, trying to convince Aqualad to join them_.

This once again made the entire team laugh - who could say no to those smiles?

 _"Just like that, we're a team on a mission?" Aqualad asked, sounding skeptical and wary._

 _Still smug, Robin told him, "We didn't come for a play date," a remark that Aqualad most definitely approved of, judging from the smirk on his face._

"Nah, see the playdate was the previous Thursday." Artemis teased

 _The scene switched to firefighters trying to put out a fire, while two scientists were trapped on the top floor. An explosion knocked both men out of the building; they were falling to their deaths until Kid Flash appeared, ran straight up the building, grabbed the men, and put them on the roof of the building which was...well, for the moment, stable._

Connor looked shocked, speaking up. "You managed to run with at least 400 pounds directly up the side of a building?"

This was pretty impressive, but Wally still got teased for what happened next.

 _The momentum wore off, leaving Kid Flash to grab onto the ledge of the building and hang there as he tried to pull himself up. The firefighters below recognized him and shouted, Ohh, ohh! - It's what's his name-Flash boy!"_

"Why don't you just change your name to The Streak, its no different than Flash Boy!" Robin cackled, holding his sides as he laughed.

 _Irritated, the speedster shouted down, "Kid Flash!" then mumbled to himself, "Why is that so hard?"_

 _Aqualad and Robin arrived at the scene, prompting Robin to say, "So smooth." as he saw the situation his friend was in._

"You enjoyed that way too much." Wally complained to his best friend.

 _"Does he always have to run ahead? We need a plan. We-Robin? " Aqualad replied, only to find himself talking to empty air, looking around for the caped hero as he heard an eerie cackle echo through the air._

Artemis, Connor, and M'gann all shot Kaldur purely sympathetic glances. Having to put up with those two? It was gonna be rough on the Atlantean.

 _However, he went into hero mode as he told the firemen, "I need to borrow that," and used his water bearers to create a platform for the scientists on the roof to get onto. " Step aboard, now," he ordered._

"'Under control' Artemis scoffed. "Those labcoats were screwed until you guys showed up to save them."

 _After the scientists were safely on the ground, he joined Kid Flash and Robin, who were sifting through digital and paper files, on the second floor._

"You guys couldn't even give him a hand?" Artemis asked them, shaking her head. Wally and Robin immediately began spouting off excuses, while Kaldur smirked.

 _"Appreciate the help." Aqualad said, a tiny bit exasperated._

 _"You handled it." Robin deflected the sarcasm,"Besides, we're here to investigate. Poetic justice, remember?"_

"You know, I think this team was lousy from the get-go about 'stealth' and 'recon' missions. Although M'gann and I can say we were just following the example of the founders" Artemis offhandedly remarked.

"What?" M'gann asked

"Oh you know, how in the beginning missions always ended with fire, explosions, guns, and all that jazz? I have a feeling this mission is the one that set the norm; it won't be long, and this will go to hell in a handbasket." the archer explained, sure of herself.

Robin shot Wally a look. Well, she wasn't wrong.

 _As Aqualad walked into the hallway, he saw a mysterious silhouette as the elevators closed. "There was something in the- "_

"What was that?" M'gann squeaked.

"Double X." Connor stated, not bothering to elaborate.

 _"Elevators should be locked down.' Kid Flash observed._

 _"This is wrong." Robin stated, opening his computer. "Thought so. This is a high-speed express elevator. It doesn't belong in a two-story building."_

"Noowww we're getting down to business." Wally said, leaning forward on the couch, getting more absorbed with what was going on. He glared at Robin, and threatened, "You say anything about defeating the Huns, I'll rat you out to Aunt Iris about the Dove chocolates."

A threat which shut Robin up.

 _"Neither does what I saw." Aqualad grimly told them. Walking forward, he pulled elevator doors open, revealing a huge, elevator shaft._

"Whoa." Artemis breathed out.

"Don't fall..."M'gann nervously warned Kaldur.

 _"And that's why they need an express elevator." Robin deadpanned. Launching his grappling hook at the ceiling, he anchored and then rode it all the way down, Aqualad and Kid Flash following until..._

 _"I'm at the end of my rope." and with that he jumped onto the nearest ledge, sitting down on it while hacking security._

The team couldn't help but be impressed with how confident and sure Robin was of himself. They noticed how him and Aqualad took turns being leader, and how all three respected, and really trusted, each other.

 _"Bypassing security...there! Go!" he told his two teammates, so Aqualad opened the elevator doors again. As the three of them looked down the large, dark, sinister looking hallway, Robin said, " Welcome to project Cadmus."_

Wally started humming 'Welcome to the Jungle' by Guns n' Roses, but was cut short with a 'Hmph-ow!" as Robin elbowed him in the ribs.

 _"Kid, wait!"Aqualad quietly exclaimed as the speedster took off ahead._

 _"Ah!" Kid Flash cried out as he slipped and skid all the way into the walkway of a herd of gigantic creatures. Looking up in shock as a massive foot was about to come down on him, Kid Flash was able to roll out of the way just in time._

"Dude, that was WAY too close for comfort!" Robin scolded his friend.

But Artemis and M'gann were looking at the genomorphs with looks of utter disbelief on their faces, eyes wide and jaws dropped, completely speechless.

 _Kid joined Robin and Aqualad again, all gazing up in utter disbelief as the creatures roared and shook the floor with every step they took._

 _"No...nothing going on here..." Aqualadsaid, his turn to deadpan._

"Nope, nothing at all - might as well go home so we can be grounded for life." Robin joked.

 _The scene changed to a laboratory, where a scientist, who was revealed by Guardian entering the room to be Doctor Desmond , was experimenting with glowing vials, labeled 'Blockbuster'._

This elicited groans from Kaldur, Connor, Robin and Wally.

 _"Tell me, guardian, what part of no interruptions did you not understand?" Desmond irritably asked._

 _They discussed a potential security breach that Desmond brushed off as a mistake, and the scientist told Guardian, "Whatever might occur in our faux lab above ground, The real Cadmus is the most secure facility in D.C."_

"Then how are there even cameras in Cadmus!" Robin shouted, desperate to know how this was all recorded.

" _My job to keep it that way." Guardian stated._

 _'Fine. Take a squad." Desmond relented, annoyed._

 _"Might I recommend guardian leave his g-gnome behind?" Double X suggested. " If violence should occur -"_

 _"The little guy would be in my way." Guardian continued._

"They are a little bit cute..." M'gann trailed off as everyone looked at her like she was crazy.

 _"No." Desmond protested, "The advantage of instant telepathic communication outweighs other concerns," then he prompted one of the g-gnomes to use it's mind control to obey Desmond's orders._

 _" I need my g-gnome with me at all times." Guardian droned mindlessly before leaving the lab._

Everyone shuddered at the mind control - not being in control of your own mind and body was a terrible thought.

"That Desmond guy is a full-blown creep, not to mention nutjob." Wally commented.

 _The scene switched to the three young heroes entering a door, and Robin stating, "O-kay, I'm officially whelmed."_

"What is it with you and this whelmed thing?" Artemis asked in fond exasperation.

'Don't judge me." Robin told her,

"Totally judging you." Wally informed his best friend.

 _Looking around, Kid Flash said, "This is how they hid this massive underground facility from the world. The real Cadmus isn't on the grid! It generates its own power with these... things. Must be what they're bred for!"_

The sight of the energy-creating creatures was bizarre, amazing, and crazy enough to leave everyone speechless. Well, for a moment, at least.

"You guys haven't been caught yet?" M'gann asked in disbelief. Robin opened his mouth to answer but Artemis yelled, "No! don't tell us, this is too good to ruin with spoilers."

 _The 'things' were creating energy as they hummed and crackled with electricity._

 _"Of course, even the name is a clue," Aqualad added his own input, "the Cadmus of myth created a new race by sowing dragons' teeth into the earth."_

"It pays to know your myths and lore." Robin pointed out.

"Ya Kal, you shoulda been a Hunter!" Wally teased, much to the Atlanean's confusion.

 _"And this Cadmus creates new life, too. Let's find out why," Robin said as he walked over to a computer, plugging his own wrist computer into it. "They call them...genomorphs. Whoa! Look at the stats on these things-" he exclaimed while scrolling through them, "Superstrength, telepathy, razor claws - these are living weapons!"_

Artemis and M'gann gasped in disbelief - this was all a new revelation to them. For some reason the guys never talked about their first mission together.

 _"They're engineering an army, but for who?" Kid asked, but Robin replied with an urgent "Wait - there's something else: Project Kr. Ugh! The file's triple-encrypted, I can't-"_

"Supey!" Wally exclaimed happily as M'gann gave Connor a hug, and Robin requested a high-five.

 _"Don't move!" Guardian yelled, bursting into the room._

"Buuusteeeed." Artemis rubbed in. Connor grimaced in sympathy, suspecting a fight to happen in a few moments.

 _The three heroes looked up in surprise,"Wait, Robin, Aqualad, Kid Flash?" Guardian asked._

 _"At least he got your name right." Robin quipped, but threw Guardian a caution glance afterwards as he kept focusing on the computer._

Everyone laughed at Robin's snide remark towards Wally's name. However, Artemis noticed how non-chalant the Robin on the screen was playing things off, but saw how serious the 13 year old really was. She knew he was preparing to fight.

 _"I know you. Guardian, a hero." Aqualad stated, sounding confused as to what Guardian was doing there._

 _"I do my best." Guardian replied._

"T _hen what are you doing here?" Kid Flash exclaimed,_

 _" I'm chief of security. You're trespassing, but we can call the Justice League, figure this out."_

"I love how he says that, he could be saying 'we can call your mom and have her come pick you up' and would use the exact same tone!" Artemis exclaimed, laughing at the boys.

 _"You think The League's gonna approve of you breeding weapons?" an outraged Kid Flash asked._

 _"Weapons?" Guardian asked, sounding confused. "What are you-what have I-ugh. My head." But before anyone could do or say anything else, a g-gnome had mind controlled him back into the pawn he was being used as. "Take 'em down hard! No mercy!" he yelled._

 _The genomorphs advanced, but Robin was faster, threw a smoke bomb before they reached the team of three, and shot his grappling line at the ceiling, leaving the others._

"Thanks for that." Wally grumbled, miffed at being deserted.

"You handled it!" Robin defended himself.

 _The screen was taken up with the fight as Kid Flash and Aqualad tackled the genomorphs and Guardian. They were able to catch a break long enough to run towards the elevator, where Robin had been busy hacking the whole time._

 _"Way to be a team player, Rob!" Kid reprimanded him, for Robin to only reply, "Weren't you right behind me?"_

Wally smacked him for that one. "You frigging ninja, you knew we weren't there! Brat."

"Not a brat!" Robin retorted,

"Yer a snot-nosed brat." Wally insulted, but laughed as he was attacked by a pillow wielding ninja.

 _With genomorphs hot on his tail, Aqualad barely made it into the elevator before the doors shut. As the elevator started descending, Aqualad exclaimed, "We're headed down?!"_

"What?!" Artemis exclaimed, while Wally went, "Exactly!"

Connor smiled at the 13 year old, extremely grateful that he had in fact gone down.

 _"Dude, out is up" Kid Flash agreed._

"Chickening out now, Wally?" Robin taunted him.

"No, I was simply getting in touch with my self-survival instincts."

Robin 'hmphed' and muttered, "baby."

 _"Excuse me? Project Kr, it's down on sub-level 52." Robin told them matter-o-factly._

 _"This is out of control." Aqualad said, then suggested,"Perhaps-perhaps we should contact The League?"_

"You guys are in so deep." Artemis observed. "Listen to the only voice of reason!"

 _The elevator dinged and reached SL 52 before Robin or Kid could give a proper answer, so the speedster simply said, "We are already here." before taking off to investigate...again._

"Batman would kill me is he ever saw this..." Robin muttered to himself. M'gann giggled at the moody bird.

 _The tunnel split into two ways..._

 _"Which way?"_

 _"Yeah," Robin agreed, contemplating, "Bizarre-looking hallway one Or bizarre-looking hallway two?"_

 _But their way was chosen for them when Double X called for them to "Halt!" and telekinetically hurled barrels at them, which exploded, forcing the heroes to retreat down the hallway to the left._

"Oh, that was part of his plan all along!" Connor realized. The other guys had just realized it too, leaving only the girls in confusion since they refused to explain what was happening.

Things were getting very tense and suspenseful; everyone was leaning forward in their seats, whether knew knew what what happened or not. M'gann had a tight grip on Connor's wrist, Robin was absentmindedly playing with a batarang while his attention was focused elsewhere (the screen), Kaldur had twined his fingers together, and Wally had a pillow clutched tightly to his chest.

 _"They are headed for project Kr!" Double X urgently told the newly arrivals from the elevator; Guardian and the genomorphs._

Connor's teammates cheered, for this was when he would be freed.

 _As they approached the vault door containing Project Kr, a dark female scientist was exiting the door, which was closing. Skidding to a halt, Kid Flash fell and slid, knocking her off her feet._

"You really need to work on your stops dude." Robin observed. "I mean, there was that, and almost being crushed by the herd of mega sized genomorphs, plus when you crashed into the huge door on sub level 1.

Artemis snorted in amusement at her boyfriend who sulked.

 _The vault door was closing and would be shut by the time Aqualad and Robin arrived, so Kid Flash took a heavy tank and used it to keep the door open until their arrival._

 _"Hurry!" he yelled at them, then they all jumped into the room containing Project Kr. Aqualad kicked the tank out of the gap in the door, and it shut with a loud clang._

'Oh good, you're safe." M'gann breathed out.

"You're trapped." Artemis observed.

Connor was looking very guilty at this point, knowing what was about to happen.

 _Pulling up his wrist computer again, Robin let them all know, "I disabled the door. We're safe."_

 _"We're trapped." Aqualad contradicted._

 _"Uh, guys? You'll want to see this" Kid Flash said, in disbelief. Pushing a button, he revealed something that blew the minds of all three young heroes..._

Artemis and M'gann gasped at the revelation, while Connor's face contorted into an angry grimace.

 _"Whoa!" Robin breathed out._

 _"Big "k," little "r," the atomic symbol for krypton." Wally informed them. "Clone?"_

 _"Robin, hack." Aqualad ordered the red-clad hero, who seemed a bit shell-shocked._

 _"Oh. Right, right." Robin replied, then got to work hacking._

"That really threw you off, didn't it?" Wally observed, laughing at his youngest teammate, who gave him a scornful look. "Who didn't it throw off?" Robin retorted.

 _"Weapon designation Superboy, a clone force-grown in...16 weeks!? From DNA acquired from Superman."_

 _"Stolen from Superman." Aqualad stated, without a doubt._

 _"No way the big guy knows about this." Kid Flash agreed._

"That's an understatement." Connor muttered.

 _"Solar suit allows him to absorb yellow sun Radiation 24/7." Robin continued._

 _"And these... creatures?" Aqualad inquired,_

 _"Genomorph gnomes, telepathic, force-feeding him an education."_

 _"And we can guess what else." Kid added. "They're making a slave out of, well, Superman's son."_

Everyone looked outraged at this; their teammate was much more than a tool, or a weapon. He was their friend.

 _"Now we contact The League." the Atlantean told the others. They all tried their method of communication, but..._

 _"No signal." Robin announced._

 _"We're in too deep - literally." Kid elaborated._

"No shit Sherlock." Artemis remarked, trying to lighten up the atmosphere. Things were getting...wound up. She knew a fight was coming, from how guilty Connor looked, and how Kal, Rob, and Wally seemed to grimace at what was going to happen.

 _The scene switched to the female scientist trying to wire the door open, while Guardian and the genomorphs waited. Desmond came running up, demanding answers._

 _"They're still in there! With the weapon?!_

 _"We can't get the door open." he was told._

 _"Use your telekinesis!" Desmond ordered Double X, who replied with, "I have tried, to no avail."_

 _"Useless! This is a debacle - get some g-trolls down here to muscle the door open, now!" he barked again, to Guardian who simply told him, "Already on their way."_

 _"You realize, once we get in there we can't ever let them leave." Doctor Desmond told the head of security._

"Ya, like that's really gonna happen." Robin scoffed.

 _"Doc," Guardian tried to reason, "these aren't your typical 'meddling kids'. You don't want to get on the wrong side of the Justice League."_

Artemis suddenly collapsed in fits of laughter, trying to get coherent words out; "Guys, guys - 'meddling kids', its - scooby doo, you're - mystery gang reference, oh gosh." Robin was cringing; he was not flattered by the comparison.

 _"Better then getting on the wrong since of the Cadmus Board of directors, believe me." Desmond retorted. "Contact the g-gnomes inside Kr."_

Connor, Aqualad, Robin, and Wally all groaned or moaned in different variances, while M'gann breathed out, "Oh no..." and Artemis simply muttered, "Crap."

 _Things went back to the three heroes, who were contemplating what to do. "This is wrong." Kid Flash stated._

 _"We can't leave him like this." Robin agreed,_

 _"Set him free." Aqualad instructed, "Do it."_

"Thanks guys." Connor softly told his friends. "And, you know, uh...sorry."

 _With a few key strokes, Robin opened the enclosure around Superboy._

 _The clone's hand flexed, and the three warily watched._

The team was holding their breath; nobody made a sound.

 _His eyes suddenly opened next, only for him to launch himself at Aqualad a moment later, in full attack._

M'gann jumped in surprise, while Artemis exclaimed, "Shit!", almost falling off the couch from being startled. Kaldur and Connor cringed.

 _"Whoa! Hang on, Supey!" Wally exclaimed,_

 _"We're on your side!" Robin grunted; the clone had been punching the Atlantean, and Robin and Kid Flash tried to stop him; Kid Flash was sent airborne with a vicious undercut, crashing into a large glass tube, then hitting the ground, unconscious._

"Aww"s and "Ohhs," were spoken in sympathy by everyone as they saw Kid Flash land on the floor, knocked out.

 _" I don't want to do this!" Robin threatened/apologized before triggering a cloud of smoke/gas, allowing Aqualad to get a kick at the clone's chest, sending him flying backwards._

Nobody was cheering, and simply cringed at every point of physical contact in the fight.

 _Getting his taser out, Robin tried to shock Superboy, only to be jerked forward and slammed to the ground, taking a Superstep to the chest. Struggling to breath, and with the pain, he tried to escape but couldn't. Seeing Robin in trouble, Aqualad morphed his water bearers into a large sledgehammer, yelling " Enough!" as he knocked Superboy off of Robin. Aqualad checked on his friend, who quickly lost consciousness._

Everybody winced on Robin's behalf; the 13 year old was absentmindedly rubbing his chest - supersteps to the chest hurt.

 _"We are trying to help you!" Aqualad tried to reason, but the Superboy only attacked again; Aqualad held his own for a bit, but was eventually knocked unconscious like his friends._

Everyone cringed in sympathy for Kal this time; it all looked pretty painful.

 _The kryptonian clone then ripped the door off, allowing entrance to Desmond and company. Surveying the helpless, unconscious, and injured sidekicks, Desmond smirked, smugly praising Superboy with,_

 _"Attaboy."_

And the screen went black. There was immediately an uproar, everyone talking at once.

"Wait, what happened? Where's the next part?"

"Were you guys okay?"

"HOW did the cameras get down there?"

"Guys, I'm really sorry."

"Play the next one! What happens?"

"Damn cliffhanger!"

"Why the heck haven't we gotten a pizza?"

"PLAY THE NEXT PART ALREADY!"

* * *

Holy. Hell.

This took 2 days to complete.

Okay, so I started this series, and I WILL finish it - But It's gonna have to be one chapter(episode) a month. This is huge.

Please let me know if you liked it and want to see more, because I'm gonna need some encouragement - guys, please understand how big of a project this is, and how much work it takes!

This is the huge project I was talking about in my Authors Note in one of my other stories.

Sorry about any mistakes/errors, but cut me some slack here

Oh, and as a sidenote - I'm an idiot. We've had netflix for 2 months and I never bothered to look up Young Justice on it! Season 1 is on it, which is all that really matters :)

Shoutout to forever-a-fanchic - your username describes my sentiment exactly ;)

I'm just too tired to booyah, do it for me, would ya guys?

There will be more chapters, but patience...

Thx and love from Redhead98


	2. Chapter 2

"Okay, everybody just calm down!" Robin yelled, making himself heard over the commotion, and just as everyone was settling down, the footage started playing again.

 _The screen showed Dr . Desmond standing in the middle of a room, computer screens above him, forming a circle. Blurred silhouettes were all the monitors showed._

"What the…?" Wally asked, in bewilderment.

 _"Dr . Desmond, you require an audience with the Light?" a faceless voice asked from one of the screens._

"Well thats not at all ominous." Artemis joked, nervously.

"Or creepy." Wally added.

"Or abnormal." Robin grumbled. But if this gave them an inside look, even a small one, at the enemy, maybe these videos weren't all bad.

 _"Yes, very sorry to disturb you at this late hour -" Desmond nervously replied, but was cut off as someone on another screen impatiently ordered him to, "Just make your report."_

"Buttkisser." Artemis scoffed. "Ain't nobody got time for that!"

 _"Of course." Desmond complied, "Well, we had a small fire here at project Cadmus. The origin of the incident is still unclear, but it seems to have attracted some…unwanted attention." As Desmond talked, the camera showed the heroes unconscious, hanging by bound wrists in separate test tubes in an underground lab._

"Aw, man, you guys are in deep." Artemis breathed out.

Aqualad, Robin, and Kid Flash cringed at the memory; they knew what was coming soon, and it was a pretty painful memory.

Robin was subconsciously rubbing his wrists - those metal cuffs, shackles, whatever you call them, really hurt.

"How did you escape?!" Megan asked, alarmed.

"With some help from a friend." Kaldur told her. He gave Connor a small smile.

 _"Three sidekicks; Robin, Aqualad, and Kid Flash, breached security. They found and released the weapon, the Superboy. Of course the clone is under our telepathic control, and, as ordered turned against his would-be liberators. The 3 are contained, and we don't believe The League knows they're here."_

"Batman, Flash, and Aquaman would kill you guys if they ever saw this." Artemis told them.

"Well then lets make sure they don't ever see this." Robin muttered.

 _"Uh, what should I do with them?" Desmond asked._

"Have their moms come pick them up, the sleepover is over!" Artemis teased.

 _"Clone them." one voice told him._

"Oh." Artemis suddenly became serious upon hearing that. "Crap."

"I do believe that effectively describes the situation." Kaldur agreed.

 _"The substitutes will serve the Light, and only the Light." another voice said._

 _"And the originals?" the Doctor continued._

 _"Dispose of them. Leave no trace."_

"Well I'm insulted." Wally announced.

"Uh, you guys aren't clones, are you?" M'gann asked, only half joking.

Robin, Wally, and Kal all exchanged looks.

"Aw crap, we've been found out!" Robin complained, while Connor just rolled his eyes.

 _A smug, happy smirk formed on Desmond's face._

"This guy is the very definition of cliche, evil mad scientist." Wally commented.

 _The scene cut to the heroes in the cave which was a lab, where Robin, Kid Flash, and Aqualad were trapped, each contained in their own test tube._

"Man, you guys are still unconscious." Artemis observed.

"Not for long!" Wally told her.

 _"Time runs short." a voice spoke, "You must awaken. You must awaken now!" it ordered, jerking the three heroes into consciousness._

"Wait, who was that? He is a telepath!" M'gann exclaimed, alarmed. "He's trying to help you, right?"

Connor reassured her in low tones as things played out on the screen.

 _They woke with startled intakes of breath as they lifted their heads up; the three found Superboy staring intently at them._

"That is one heck of a wake-up call." Artemis laughed. This whole thing was just bizarre. Although she really did love the opportunity to find out what things were like before she joined the team - heck before there even was a team.

 _"What? What do you want?" Kid Flash demanded, in a bad mood. "Quit staring, you're creeping me out!"_

Everyone laughed at this; how typical of the redhead.

"You're all charm, Wally." Robin told his best friend.

"Shut up, that was like full blown Edward Cullen -I-watch-you-in-your-sleep crap going on right there!" Wally defended himself. M'gann simply laughed harder at them.

 _" Uh, KF, how about we not tick off the guy who can fry us with a look?" Robin suggested, his mind obviously on self preservation._

"Good call, bird-brain, except he doesn't have heat vision." Artemis stated.

 _The scene switched again, cutting to Desmond. "Prepare the cloning procedure for the new Project Sidekick - now." the scientist ordered._

"Now that IS insulting!" Robin exclaimed, then muttered something that sounded like, "Project sidekick my ass."

 _"Almost done here, doc." Guardian informed him._

 _"Where's the weapon?" Desmond demanded to know,_

 _"Superboy? He carried the intruders to the cloning chamber." Guardian told him._

 _"We have genomorphs for that! Get the weapon back in its pod now!" Desmond ordered again._

"This guy is like in a permanent bad mood." Wally observed, while Robin snorted.

 _"I don't see the harm in letting the kid stretch his legs." Guardian commented._

 _" Don't you now?" Doctor Desmond asked, initiating the g-gnomes mind control._

 _"That clone belongs in a cage!" Guardian exclaimed, storming out of the room._

Connor growled at the mind control.

 _The screen changed to the trapped heroes again. "We only sought to help you." Aqualad told the stoic Superboy._

"See, he's still staring." Wally pointed out, pointing out how awkward it was, and then gave Connor a look.

Connor simply shrugged.

 _"Yeah, we free you, and you turn on us." Kid Flash snapped at him, annoyed and angry, "How's that for grat - "_

 _"Kid, please, be quiet now. I believe our new friend is not in full control of his actions." Aqualad cut the speedster off._

"You know, you guys are lucky Kaldur was there."

"Don't we know it." Robin replied. He knew Kal truly had a gift with words; the Atlantean had talked down more suicides than the rest of the team put together.

 _Meanwhile, Robin had pulled a lock-pick out of the top of his glove._

"O-ho, bird boy's got a plan!" Artemis exclaimed, then threw a look towards M'gann, who started giggling. Must be an inside joke.

 _"Wha..what if, what if I wasn't?" Superboy had asked, to everyone's surprise._

 _"He can talk?" Kid Flash exclaimed._

"Rude, Wally, rude!" Robin reprimanded; Wally smacked him in response.

 _"Yes. He can." The clone retorted, angry already. There was an awkward pause before Kid spoke up, defending himself. "Not like I said, 'it'."_

Everybody laughed at this, while Wally's voice rose in his own defense; "Well I didn't!"

 _"The genomorphs taught you - telepathically." Aqualad asked._

 _"They taught me much. I can read, write. I know the names of things." Superboy told him._

 _"But have you seen them? Have they ever actually let you see the sky, or the sun?" Robin asked, shocked._

Wally snorted at this; of course the first thing his best friend asked would be about the sky. The acrobat couldn't live without the freedom of it. Wally had known that question would be coming from Robin before the acrobat had even opened his mouth to ask it.

 _"Images are implanted in my mind, but no. I have not seen them." was the clone's answer._

"It's so wrong." M'gann said, and everyone agreed while adding their own words of abuse to Cadmus and Desmond.

 _"Do you know what you are, who you are?" Aqualad inquired, wondering just how much the clone understood._

"Babe-magnet." Wally whispered to Robin, who doubled over from laughter.

 _"I am The Superboy, a genomorph, a clone made from The DNA of the Superman, created to replace him should he perish, to destroy him should he turn from the Light." Superboy informed them._

 _"To be like Superman is a worthy aspiration. But like Superman, you deserve a life of your own - beyond that Solar suit, beyond your pod, beyond Cadmus." Aqualad explained to Superboy._

 _"I live because of Cadmus! It is my home!" Superboy retorted in defense of the laboratory._

"Definitely not the time to be loyal." Connor muttered.

 _"Your home is a test tube. We can show you the sun." Robin explained, his voice seeming to hold absolute marvel about the Sun, and disbelief at what Superboy was missing._

"Listen to Robbie, Supey!" Wally advised.

 _"Uh, pretty sure it's after midnight. But we can show you the moon." Kid Flash pointed out._

"Do you think the League knew we were gone by then?" Wally asked.

"I dunno. All they had to do was look at the security cameras at the Hall, which showed what time we left. I scrambled the audio on it, but I'll bet Batman managed to lip read everything we said, and saw what was looked up. Doesn't take a genius to find out where we went."

 _"We can show you, introduce you to, Superman." Aqualad revealed; this was a statement that truly caught Superboy's attention, but before him or anyone else could say or do anything, they were interrupted._

 _"No, they can't." Desmond stated. "They'll be otherwise occupied."_

"Ya, uh - no, our word was good." Wally corrected him.

"Totally good." Robin agreed.

"100% completely -" but Artemis cut him off when she exclaimed, "Alright, we get it!"

 _"Activate the cloning process." he told the other female doctor._

This generated gasps from both of the girls.

 _"Pass - Batcave's crowded enough." Robin quipped. The sass was clearly strong with this one._

Robin's remark had everyone busting up, and through his laughter Wally said, "SUCH a smart-ass!"

 _"And get the weapon back in its pod!" Desmond demanded._

 _"Hey, how come he gets to call Supey an it?" Kid Flash scoffed._

"Sometimes you just don't know when to shut up, Wally." Artemis commented.

"Don't you mean all the time." Robin said under his breath, only loud enough for Connor to hear, who let out a small bark of laughter.

 _"Help us." Aqualad pleaded. Guardian put a hand onto Superboy's shoulder to escort him back to his pod, but the clone shook it off in a show of resistance._

"Yes! Rebel!" Artemis shouted, while M'gann cheered as well.

 _"Don't start thinking now. See, you're not a real boy, you're a weapon, and you belong to me!" Desmond exclaimed, as the g-gnomes began manipulating Superboy's mind. "Well, to Cadmus. Same thing. Now get back to your pod!"_

"Awwww." the girls moaned.

 _Superboy turned and walked out of the room, the door closing behind him. Upon Desmond's cue, the female scientist (Doctor Spence) pressed a button, activating long metal arms in each of the contained heroes pods. Each one branched out and had sharp metal needles at the end of the extensions, which sunk into Kid Flash's, Robin's, and Aqualad's chests. Electricity crackled through them as the three heroes started screaming in pain._

M'gann covered her ears to try and not hear the boys' screams, and Artemis had her hands clasped together tightly as she bit her lower lip. Connor was cringing at his friends' pain; he felt guilty. They had gone through it to save him, and he had been happy to return the favor.

The three who had been tortured did not appreciate others watching it, and stared resolutely at the screen, willing it to play faster, or maybe skip this part.

"Is that blood, going into those glass domes?" Artemis asked, horrified. A solemn nod from Kaldur was all the answer she got.

 _"Where's Double X?" Desmond asked, as he appeared behind the scientist. "Ooh! Lurking as usual. Get the g-gnomes downloading their memories. When that's done delete the source material."_

"They would have found out your secret IDs!" M'gann exclaimed.

"Hurry up and escape!" Artemis shouted at the tv.

"Well you try it sometime, and see how easy it is!" Wally grumpily retorted, crossing his arms in front of him.

 _Through the torture, Aqualad was able to talk, hoping to reach Superboy through the clone's superhearing._

 _"Superboy, you live. That gives you the right to follow your own path." he told him,"A weapon or a person - the choice is yours, but ask yourself, 'what would Superman do?'"_

 _Upon hearing Aqualad's words, Superboy stopped in his tracks, narrowing his eyes in determination._

"Hurry Connor!" both girls yelled at him.

Robin and Wally both looked at Aqualad like he was a genius; neither had known he had done that, or that Aqualad's words were the things that saved them.

"Brilliant, Kaldur." Robin gratefully praised him.

 _The scene cut back to the sidekicks' screams, when suddenly the door to the cloning chamber was ripped right off, held in the air by Superboy. By doing so, it shorted the electrical system, which stopped the machines that were torturing the three heroes._

This elicited cheers from everyone - the girls were beyond relieved that their boys were okay…well for now. Hopefully. Maybe.

Man were they in deep crap, a thought Artemis conveyed to M'gann, who anxiously agreed.

 _Desmond shouted, "I told you to get back to your -", as Superboy tossed the door out of the way, but the scientist, Double X, and Guardian were all thrown out of the way, knocked unconscious by the clone._

"Yes! That is what Superman would do!" Wally cheered.

 _"Don't give me orders." Superboy warned, before going to stand in front of the trapped heroes._

"And so you see, this is where Connor's little problem with taking orders came from." Robin joked.

 _"You here to help us or fry us?" Kid Flash asked, unsure._

 _Narrowing his eyes, Superboy replied, "Huh. I don't seem to have heat vision, so I suppose helping is my only option."_

Artemis snorted at Connor's reply.

"See! He does have a sense of humor!" Robin exclaimed.

 _Robin used his lock picks to undo his wrist restraints, then jumped out of his glass prison, rubbing his wrists._

"Finally!" Artemis shouted. Relief was flowing off of M'gann in waves.

 _"Ah! Finally! Lucky Batman isn't here. He'd have my head for taking so long."_

"Interesting…" Artemis commented, while Robin threw her a look that said to 'shut up.'

 _"Seriously, that's what you're worried about." Kid Flash asked, in a 'you've got to be kidding me' tone._

Robin glared at Wally. "As hard as it is for you, who's not THE friggin Batman's protege, to believe; YES, I was most definitely worried about that. Even more so than getting out of there. I have my priorities straight."

 _"The whole League will have our heads after tonight!" Kid yelled._

"He has a point." M'gann commented, but Robin brushed it off. Apparently, it was a greater concern for Batman to have your head than it was for the entire League.

 _Robin pressed a button on the computer console, opening the doors to Kid Flash's and Aqualad's glass test tubes._

 _"Free Aqualad, I'll get Kid Mouth." he told Superboy._

"Haven't you learned, Robbie? He doesn't like orders." Wally told Robin in a tone that suggested he was talking to a 3 year old.

Nobody saw what Robin had done, but a moment later Wally let out a loud, "Um, OW!"

 _"Don't you give me orders either." the clone replied, but followed his request anyway. Jumping up to Aqualad's test tube, he crushed the metal wrist restraints, freeing the Atlantean._

 _"Thank you." Aqualad told him, extremely grateful._

 _Robin was on top of Kid Flash's glass tube, using his lock pick to release the speedster's metal wrist restraints._

 _Succeeding, all four boys jumped down and ran for the exit._

"Aww, you guys bonded!" M'gann fawned at them as the four boys ran out of the lab together. Robin sighed in embarrassment while Wally face palmed.

"Well, relations seem to grow quickly when you are saving someone, or being saved." Kal pointed out.

 _Desmond was lying on the ground, having just regained consciousness. "You-you'll never get out of here! I'll have you back in pods before morning." he angrily told them._

"Pass." Robin replied to the Desmond on-screen.

 _Taking out 3 birdarangs, Robin launched them at the glass containers containing the stolen DNA from the three sidekicks._

 _"That guy is not whelmed - not whelmed at all." Robin told anyone who would listen._

Everyone except for Robin started snickering at this remark.

 _"What is it with you and this whelmed thing?" Kid Flash asked as the birdarangs exploded, and the three heroes plus Superboy fled._

KF's comment is what sent everyone into hysterics; for some reason, something was bizarrely funny about this exchange between the two heroes.

 _Fire raged and smoke billowed behind Desmond as he gazed after the retreating teenagers, incensed. "Activate every genomorph in Cadmus." he told his g-gnome._

"Well, shit." Artemis said, voicing everybody's thoughts.

 _Egg-shaped pods began glowing red, adorning the sides of the immense caves as genomorphs were activated._

"Sometimes I hate science." Robin told them in a tired voice.

 _The scene switched to Aqualad, who got right down to pointing the major problem out._

 _"We are still 42 levels below ground, but if we can make the elevator -" but he was cut off as they encountered enormous genomorph trolls in front of them, with smaller genormorphs being activated behind them. The g-trolls attacked them; Superboy fought back, while the others evaded the fight. The fight was destabilizing the walls, and Aqualad told the clone,"Superboy, the goal is escape, not to bury ourselves here."_

"Big picture, Connor." M'gann giggled, reminding her boyfriend who just looked sheepish.

 _"You want escape?" Superboy asked, in a rage. He then took out the last two g-trolls, and the four headed to the elevator._

 _Aqualad opened the doors; Kid Flash jumped onto a ledge in the shaft, Robin shot his grappling gun, and Superboy grabbed hold of Aqualad before leaping upward, intending to fly, except…he couldn't._

Wally was paying close attention to Robin for some reason at this part…

 _"I'm - I'm falling." Superboy softly said in shock as him and Aqualad fell downward. Robin eyes widened in shock and fear as he watched a familiar scene from his past unfold in front of him._

Robin's mental distress at this part was obvious to M'gann, and she was the only one who noticed when Wally rested his hand on top of Robin's smaller one.

 _Aqualad managed to grab hold of a bar sticking out of the wall, and they were helped onto the ledge by Kid Flash and Robin._

 _"Superman can fly. Why can't I fly?" Superboy asked, sounding as though he were having a major identity crisis._

 _"Don't know, but it looks like you can leap tall buildings in a single bound. Still cool." Kid Flash reassured him._

"Yes, still very cool." Artemis told him.

"Way cool." Robin agreed.

"Wicked cool." Wally continued, but a glare from Connor had Wally raising his hands in defeat and saying, "Alright, shutting up now."

 _"Thank you." Superboy told them._

 _"Guys, this will have to be our exit." Robin announced as an elevator was heard speeding down the shaft. The four of them busted onto the closest floor, which was sub level 15. They began running down the maze of hallways as genomorphs pursued them._

"HOW are you guys going to get out of there in time?" Artemis anxiously asked.

"In time for what?" Robin replied, curious.

"Just - in time!" she retorted.

 _"Turn left, brother." a voice told Superboy inside his head._

"More mind control?" M'gann asked, alarmed.

"No, just advice." Connor replied, smiling slightly.

 _"Go left! Left!" he ordered the three heroes, following the advice._

 _"Turn right." it then said._

 _"Right!" Superboy said, and they all went right, coming to a dead end._

"Oh, I see! Like with the Reds!" Artemis exclaimed as she saw the opening to an air vent.

 _"Great directions, Supey, you trying to get us repodded?" Kid Flash complained._

 _"No, I don't understand." Superboy replied, apologizing._

"The air vents!" Artemis told all of them, as if she was the only person in the room figuring this out right now. "Hello!"

Wally rolled his eyes. "Yes Goddess of the Hunt, we get that now! Been there, done that, literally."

 _"Don't apologize, this is perfect!" Robin exclaimed, with a smug look on his face as he caught sight of the air vent in the wall. Genomorphs were seen a moment later, but what they found was an air vent cover on the ground, not the heroes._

Robin was looking so smug it should have been outlawed. Wally elbowed him and grumbled, "Quit congratulating yourself."

 _Predictably, said heroes were then shown to be crawling through the air vents._

 _"At this rate, we'll never get out." Kid Flash pointed out._

 _"Shh. Listen." Superboy told all of them; he could hear the genomorphs from far off, following them in the air vents._

"Okay, so I'll admit, we could have gone a bit faster!" Robin announced, annoyed.

"I'm glad we didn't have to crawl through 15 underground levels of air vents." Kaldur commented. Wally looked horrified at the thought, and Robin personally thought it would have been worth it, just to make Wally have to do it.

 _Things swung back to Desmond, Double X, and Guardian, who were racing down the hallways. Desmond was holding a tablet that was tracking the movement of the heroes._

"Oooh, Mister big and fancy lab coat thinks he's being smart." Wally taunted. He couldn't wait to see Desmond's reaction to Robin's hacking skills.

 _"Someone, Robin, I'd wager, hacked our systems, deactivating internal security cameras.." Desmond informed them._

Everyone was howling with laughter at this; they sure did love their youngest teammate.

 _" - buuut he neglected the motion sensors." Desmond informed his colleagues._

"Slacking, are we Robin?" Artemis teased.

"As if." Robin scoffed, crossing him arms and sitting back with a cocky attitude.

 _"The genomorphs are closing in." he informed them, approaching the Men's Bathroom. "They're all coming out in here. We have them cornered!" Entering it, they went up to the air vent in there, waiting._

The whole team, whether they had been there or not, was leaning forward in anticipation and suspense….any second now…

 _But what exited the air vent was simply a squad of genomorphs, who tumbled out on top of everyone. Shoving a genomorph off of him, Desmond growled out, "He hacked the motion sensors."_

"IN YOUR FACE!" Robin shouted, triumph, as everyone else had tears in their eyes from laughter.

 _The scene switched to a very smug and triumph Robin, who bragged, "I hacked the motion sensors."_

"Dang right you did!" Wally said to his best friend through his laughter, as he held up his hand for a high-five, receiving one.

 _"Sweet." Kid Flash approved, standing with everyone in a hallway._

"I am, aren't I?" Robin asked, earning himself another smack from Wally.

 _"Still plenty of them between us and out." Robin pointed out._

"ya, don't get comfortable." Artemis advised, eyes locked on the screen.

 _"But I've finally got room to move!" Kid told them, bursting into the fire escape stairs, headed towards the top. Everyone followed, and Kid Flash took out another squad of genomorphs like he was a bowling ball, and they were the pins._

"SSTRRRRIKE!" Wally yelled, "Perfect score!""Well thats a first, since you suck at bowling." Robin replied, smirking at his best friend who pointedly ignored his comment.

 _"More behind us!" Robin yelled to Superboy, who simply destroyed the stairway behind them, where the genomorphs were following._

"Well, thats..one way to get someone to stop following you." M'gann observed.

 _"We'll cut them off at sublevel 1." Guardian reassured Desmond, who was riding the elevator upward._

 _"We'd better, or the board will have our heads - my head." Desmond replied, then stopped the elevator and got off._

"There's a lot of heads on the chopping block here - I mean, Batman's gonna have Robin's head, The League's gonna have everyone's, and the Cadmus board is gonna have Desmond's - although I can't say I'm sorry to hear that one." Wally stated.

 _"I need to get something from project Blockbuster, just in case. I'll meet you at sublevel 1!" Desmond informed Guardian._

This comment drew groans and face-palms from all the boys. Wally muttered something about 'Friggin mad scientists going rogue.'

 _The scene cut to the 4 heroes (counting Superboy as a hero), as Kid Flash raced up several flights of stairs. As he reached sub level one, the hallway he darted down was suddenly lit with red warning lights, while alarms blared and the main door was closed, locked down._

"Craaap!" Artemis shouted as things went south.

"Open the blast doors!" Robin shouted, quoting Star Wars.

 _"Oh, crud." Kid Flash muttered, unable to stop fast enough, slamming into the massive metal doors._

"I said open the blast doors!" Robin yelled again, laughing at Wally's intimate encounter with the huge metal doors.

 _"We're cut off from the street!" Aqualad stated as he, Robin, and Superboy caught up._

 _"Thanks, my head hadn't noticed." the speedster quipped as Superboy and Aqualad tried to work together and muscle the door open._

"If you guys can't pull it open, hack it! Hurry!" Artemis exclaimed, but not a second later…

 _"Can't hack this fast enough." Robin informed them as genomorphs appeared behind them._

 _"This way!" he exclaimed, busting through an adjacent door, running, only to find themselves completely surrounded by genomorphs on all sides, along with Guardian._

Artemis now shrieked in frustration, at how the situation was going from 'bad' to 'really bad' to 'holy crap we're screwed'. M'gann was all scrunched up and clutching a pillow to her chest, the suspense killing her.

Kaldur sighed; the situation he screen was showing them in was indeed grim.

 _They took out their weapons, and prepared themselves with battle stances. However, the g-gnomes activated their mind control, and rendered the four heroes unconscious in a second._

"Man that sucked." Wally muttered, and Robin nodded vigorously in agreement. Kal rubbed his temples, and it was Connor's turn to sigh. The girls winced in sympathy for the boys.

 _"Perhaps for the sake of all genomorphs, our brother Superboy should make up his own mind." Double X addressed Superboy, and the genomorphs._

"It was him!", "Wait, what?!" M'gann and Artemis exclaimed at the same time, shocked and relieved; the boys might get out of this.

Well, technically they did, but…the whole thing was still stressful.

 _"It was you." Superboy telepathically replied, still on the ground like the other heroes after the mental assault._

 _"Yes, brother. I set the fire and lured your new friends down into Cadmus, woke them when they were in danger," Double X affirmed._

" _And guided me. Why?" Superboy asked._

 _"Because you are our hope, the genomorph hero. You will blaze a trail for all our brothers, showing us the way to freedom."_

"Those poor creatures!" M'gann exclaimed.

 _Guardian was suddenly released from telepathic control; holding his head, he asked, "What's going on?"_

 _Aqualad woke up as well._

"I'm glad you two woke up," Kaldur addressed Wally and Robin, "Otherwise we would have had to carry you."

The two younger heroes suddenly looked very embarrassed.

 _"What is your choice, brother?" Double X urgently asked._

 _"I. Choose. Freedom." Superboy determinedly declared._

"Good call." Artemis told him.

 _"Feels like… fog lifting." Guardian said; meanwhile, Robin and Kid Flash were finally waking up, holding their heads._

"Yep, thats what if feels like." Connor confirmed.

 _"Guardian?" Aqualad asked, warily._

 _"Go." Guardian told them, "I'll deal with Desmond."_

"This isn't going to end well." Artemis moaned.

 _"I think not." Desmond's voice was heard, and the genomorphs backed away, revealing the scientist, who was holding a glowing blue vial._

"Knew it." She muttered.

"He's not going to actually….drink it, is he?" M'gann asked, horrified.

"Nobody's that crazy." Robin sarcastically reassured her.

 _"Project Blockbuster will give me the power to restore order to Cadmus." he stated, downing the liquid. His transformation began; clothes tearing, body growing, skin ripping, muscles bulging; it was gruesome, and scary. When he was finished, Desmond was no longer human, but a hulking, roaring beast with red eyes._

The team was aghast as they saw the transformation, their eyes wide in shock. Completely stunned, nobody could manage to get a word out; even the ones who had been there, and saw it firsthand.

 _"Everyone back!" Guardian warned, charging at Desmond, who was now 'Blockbuster'. However, he was merely swatted away like a fly by the creature. Superboy attacked, and the two exchanged vicious blows. Superboy leapt into the air, on the attack, and Blockbuster did the same. The two met in midair, but went straight through the ceiling, creating a massive hole._

"Whoa!"

"Ouch!"

"What just hap…"

"Nuts! Thats nuts."

Everyone talked at once, adding to the noise and chaos in the room.

 _"O-k. That's.. one way to bust through the ceiling." Robin observed, shooting his grappling line. Kid Flash grabbed onto Robin's utility belt, hitching a ride onto ground level._

Artemis smirked. "You two seem mighty comfortable at doing that." she innocently observed. "Shut it Arty." Robin grumbled.

"I'm just saying," she continued, "if I ever did that to a guy, he's say I was getting , ahem, very friendly…"

"Would you just let it rest? We're not a couple!" Robin retorted.

 _"You think lab coat planned that?" the speedster asked as their feet left the ground._

 _"I doubt he is planning anything anymore." Aqualad grimly replied._

"Understatement." Connor muttered.

 _Aqualad jumped through the opening and joined Robin and Kid Flash, who were watching what was going down with absolute shock written across their faces._

" ohmygosh," M'gann whispered as she watched the fight.

 _What was 'going down' involved Blockbuster and Superboy trading blows, until the creature grabbed Superboy's leg and flung him through the air towards the other three; Aqualad managed to catch him, but they both went tumbling to the ground. Robin and Kid Flash ran towards them helping the two fallen heroes up._

"Come on guys, kick his ass!" Artemis exclaimed, feeling very wound up.

 _Blockbuster roared; standing shoulder to shoulder, the four heroes advanced on the former scientist; Kid Flash slid underneath him, catching his attention, while Superboy and Aqualad worked in synch to land a punch to Blockbuster's face; Kid Flash crouched down and used his body to trip him, effectively taking Blockbuster down for a moment._

 _"Learned that one in kindergarten." Kid Flash bragged._

"You must have been a little hellion." Robin commented.

"Oh, as if you weren't just as bad, or even 5 times worse!" Wally retorted.

"Aunt Iris said it took at least 2 adults watching you at all time to keep you out of trouble!

"Well Agent A said he only started to go gray when you -"

"Would you two shut up?!" Artemis snapped at them.

 _Superboy attacked Blockbuster again, but the creature gained the upper hand as they crashed into a pillar; Superboy was pinned against it as he took several blows. Aqualad intervened, but was not able to do much more than distract Blockbuster, for he was thrown to the ground, cracking the cement from the impact._

Like when you watch a boxing fight and exclaim something at every punch, every time someone was hit, everyone went, "oh, ooooh, OH!", wincing or cringing in surprise and sympathy.

 _Superboy was thrown to the ground next, blocks of cement falling onto him. Kid Flash attempted to attack, but was used to be thrown into Aqualad, who was about to attack with his water bearers. They both crashed against a cement pillar, crumbling to the floor._

 _Blockbuster furthered his attack on Aqualad, using the Atlantean as a battering ram to take out an entire support pillar, which weakened the structure; sections of the building above began to fracture and break, while pieces of concrete fell from the ceiling._

"I said kick HIS ass, don't let him kick yours!" Artemis yelled at them as she watched them losing the fight.

"We were trying, alright?" Wally replied. "It's not like we enjoyed having the crap beat out of us!"

 _Robin was then shown on the screen, a look of realization on his face. "Of course!" he said to himself, then used his wrist computer to pull up a 3D hologram of the building's supports and structure. "KF, get over here!" he yelled to the speedster, who was picking himself off the ground._

"Finally, you have a plan." M'gann breathed out in relief.

 _Aqualad was shown again, on the losing side of the fight with Blockbuster, and Superboy tried to help him. Blockbuster used Superboy's body to swing through another concrete support pillar, beam, whatever you want to call it._

 _The scene cut to Robin's computer again, with the hologram showing structural damage to the building. He must have given Kid Flash the plan, because he said, "Got it?"_

 _"Got it." Kid Flash confirmed._

 _"Go." Robin told him in the exact moment that the speedster took off._

"Come on….come on guys…" Artemis was repeating to herself, completely caught up in the action.

"Luckily Robin is good at thinking under pressure." Kal praised the acrobat, who smiled his thanks.

 _Kid Flash launched himself at Blockbuster, landing a punch while grabbing a piece of skin that used to be Desmond's…nose…_

"EW!" M'gann squealed, "That was his actual skin!"

 _"Got your nose!" he exclaimed, effectively getting the attention of the creature and keeping it busy, giving Robin a chance to inform the other two of the plan._

 _"Superboy, Aqualad!" Robin urgently called them, pulling the building's structural hologram up on his wrist computer again._

"You're gonna bring the building down aren't you?" Artemis asked with a groan.

"Now where would you get an idea like that?!" Robin replied, in mock innocence.

 _"Come and get me, you incredible bulk!" Kid Flash taunted Blockbuster; the creature swung at the speedster and missed, taking out another support. However, a piece of concrete hit Kid Flash, taking him off his feet as Blockbuster attacked again, landing another punch._

 _"This one, and that one." Robin instructed Aqualad and Superboy, who promptly took out two more of the building's supports._

"You're gonna bring the building down." Artemis repeated in disbelief, and it wasn't even a question this time.

 _"Sorry! Try again," Kid Flash told Blockbuster as he evaded another punch the speedster was playing an effective game of keepaway, drawing the attention to himself as part of the plan, so that the others could prepare for Blockbuster's takedown._

 _Robin drew a large X on the ground, then Aqualad doused it with water. Kid lured Blockbuster to the target area, where Superboy took the creature down with a punch, right on top of the X. Aqualad conducted the water with electricity, which flowed right to Blockbuster, electrocuting him._

Everyone loudly celebrated the takedown of Blockbuster, but none more than the girls, who were in fact very proud of the boys.

 _While Blockbuster screamed in pain, Robin yelled for the others to "Move!"_

"Now!" M'gann exclaimed, sitting up on her knees as she bit her fingernails.

"GO!" Artemis yelled.

"WE ARE!" Robin and Wally shouted back - the tension in the room was palpable.

 _The reason to move became clear as birdarangs embedded in the supporting structural beams lit up, and promptly blew up, bring the entire ceiling down. An enormous slab of concrete landed on Blockbuster, while the four heroes ran away from the collapsing, and therefore deadly, building._

"Go-go-goooo!" Artemis encouraged while M'gann shrieked, "Ohmygosh!"

 _As concrete began to rain down on top of them, Superboy threw himself on top of Kid Flash to shield and protect him, while Aqualad did the same to Robin. They were buried as the building completely collapsed._

"Did you die?!" M'gann exclaimed. She was too wound up to realize her mistake.

 _The settled rubble was suddenly tossed out of the way as Superboy freed himself and the others from tons of fallen concrete._

"Whooo! yes!" Artemis yelled, while Robin covered his ears against the noise. Girls were loud.

 _With worn and tattered clothing, they were breathing heavily as smoke billowed around them._

"Wally, you looked like crap!" Robin observed.

"Likewise, bro." Wally replied.

 _"We, did it." Aqualad managed to say through heavy intakes of air._

"I'm in even more disbelief than you, Kal." Artemis told him. "Not that I didn't have 100% faith in you guys the entire time." she added as a stray afterthought.

 _"Was there, ever any doubt?" Robin asked him, sounding winded._

A comment that actually made M'gann bury her face in her hands in relief and disbelief. The emotional stress of the whole incident was too much.

His remark also earned him a smack from both Wally and Artemis.

"Ow." Robin complained, rubbing the back of his head.

 _Breathing hard, him and Kid Flash high-fived; upon impact, the sound of bones cracking was heard, and the two winced in pain, holding their torso._

"How injured were you?" M'gann asked.

"Well, Batman didn't bench me for a week for nothing." Robin casually replied.

 _Superboy gazed at the unconscious Blockbuster creature, who was buried by a huge slab of concrete. However, his attention was drawn towards Kid Flash as the speedster said, "See? The moon."_

"That's sweet." Artemis commented.

 _All four of them gazed at it, but their attention was drawn to something, or rather someone, who was flying in front of it, then landed in front of them. Superboy's face had a look of disbelief on it as he realized who it was._

"Wow." M'gann and Artemis said at the same time.

 _"Oh. And Superman. Do we keep our promises or what?" Kid Flash asked, but as he did, what appeared to the the ENTIRE friggin League arrived; Kid, Aqualad, and Robin looked around them as they all arrived, including the mentors._

"Oh crap. Craaap. Wow you guys are so incredibly screwed - it was nice knowing you!" Artemis told the boys in a faint voice. Meanwhile, M'gann was face palming at the extent of the boys' bad luck.

"If there was every a time to panic, that was the moment!" Wally said, "I mean, you can't tell me you weren't freaking about at least a little bit."

"A little bit? Try full-blown panic." Robin whispered back.

 _Superboy approached Superman, showing his S symbol, a look of hope and longing to be accepted on his face._

 _He was quickly shot down however as Superman became visibly angry, and his expression hardened._

"Now that's just cold." Artemis stated. Connor pointedly looked away from the screen, therefore, the rejection.

 _"Is that what I think it is?" Batman asked from behind Superman._

"And, of course, the first thing Batman does is call Supey and 'it'. Typical." Robin scoffed, shaking his head.

 _"He doesn't like being called an it." Kid Flash advised._

 _"I'm Superman's clone." Superboy spat out, wanting to get the worst over with. Looks of surprise and shocked were exchanged throughout the League, who had stayed silent, stoic, and disapproving the entire time._

 _"Start talking." Batman ordered._

"Ah, yes sir Batman sir." Wally jokingly replied. "That guy could make "Welcome to McDonalds, how may I take your order?' sound terrifying. When he says 'start talking', you don't hesitate."

 _The scene cut to the Blockbuster creature being taken away by GL and several other members of the League, while Robin, Kid Flash, Aqualad, and Superboy stood together, looking mad and rebellious in their club of shame._

"It really is sweet though, how much the four of you bonded." Artemis pointed out, while Robin and Wally rolled their eyes.

 _Superboy looked over to Superman, who was talking with Wonder Woman and Martian Manhunter. The latter put a hand on Superman's shoulder, directing his attention to kryptonian's clone._

 _Approaching Superboy, Superman told him, "Well, uh..we'll figure something out for you. The League will, I mean. For now, I'd better make sure they get that Blockbuster Creature squared away."_

"Excuses excuses." Wally tittered, reprimanding Superman.

 _And with that obvious excuse and dodge from responsibility and reality, Superman was gone._

 _"Cadmus will be investigated, all 52 levels, but let's make one thing clear." Batman addressed the proteges._

"Grounded for life." Robin finished.

 _"You should have called!" Flash exclaimed, which earned him a batglare._

 _"End results aside, we are not happy." Batman continued. "You hacked Justice League systems, disobeyed direct orders, and endangered lives. You will not be doing this again."_

Everyone held their breath, not wanting to miss a word of what was said.

 _" I am sorry, but we will." Aqualad told them determinedly._

 _"Aqualad, stand down." Aquaman ordered._

" _Apologies, my king, but no." his protege replied. "We did good work here tonight, the work you trained us to do. Together on our own we forged something powerful, important."_

 _" If this is about your treatment at the hall, The 3 of you -" Flash began to say, but was cut off as Kid Flash corrected him: "The 4 of us, and it's not."_

 _Robin stepped forward, talking directly to his mentor. "Batman, we're ready to use what you taught us. Or why teach us at all?"_

"You know, if it hadn't been for Robin, I don't think we could have convinced him." Wally commented. "Robin is the one that really turned the tide in our favor in this argument. He really got through to Batman."

 _"Why let them tell us what to do?" Superboy spoke up. "It's simple. Get on board, or get out of the way.", and with that said, the four turned and faced the League… as Batman glared at them._

"Wow." Artemis breathed out. She had a new level of respect for the guys on the team.

 _The scene changed to Mount Justice, and showed text on the screen that said Mount Justice, July 8, 08:04 EDT._

 _"This cave was the original secret sanctuary of the Justice League.' Batman addressed the teen heroes lined up in front of him. "We're calling it into service again. Since you 4 are determined to stay together and fight the good fight, you'll do it on League terms." he told them, but it sounded more like a threat._

"Success!" M'gann yelled, while Artemis whooped. The boys all grinned with either triumph or smug looks on their faces.

 _"Red Tornado volunteered to live here and be your supervisor. Black Canary's in charge of training." Batman continued. "I will deploy you on missions."_

 _"Real missions?" Robin asked, sounding a bit skeptical._

 _"Yes, but covert." Batman confirmed._

 _"The League will still handle the obvious stuff. There's a reason we have these big targets on our chests." Flash told them, pointing to the lightning symbol on his uniform._

 _"But Cadmus proves the bad guys are getting smarter." Aquaman told them. "Batman needs a team that can operate on the sly."  
_

Everyone either laughed or groaned at this statement. The whole concept of 'stealth' had taken a bit of practice to get used to…

 _"The 5 of you will be that team." Batman continued._

 _"Cool!" Robin approved, but looked confused as he asked, "Wait. 5?"_

 _"This is the Martian Manhunter's niece Miss Martian." Batman told them as Martian Manhunter and Miss Martian approached the team._

Wally wolf-whistled, causing Artemis to smack him. While he was placating her with a "I was just kidding babe," M'gann hugged Connor's arm, excited to finally be in the story.

 _" Hi." she shyly greeted them. Robin and Kid Flash exchanged looks as Kid Flash said, "Liking this gig more every minute. Welcome aboard! I'm Kid Flash. That's Robin, Aqualad - it's cool if you forget their names."_

"Well thanks, Wally." Robin sarcastically told him. Kal just laughed, used to the antics.

 _"I'm honored to be included." she replied, as the three walked up to her to get better acquainted._

 _"Hey, Superboy!" Robin called out to him,"Come meet Miss M."_

Robin and Wally started singing the chorus of 'This Could Be the Start of Something New' from High School Musical, but quickly shut up as Artemis threatened them.

 _As he approached Miss Martian changed her t-shirt to match the colors of Superboy's shirt. " I like your tshirt." she told Superboy._

 _"Today is the day." Aqualad declared, triumphal._

The entire team yelled and clapped in celebration as they finished watching the official creation of the team.

 _The scene switched, to show Cadmus under construction._

"Wait, what?" Wally asked, confused.

 _Guardian, Double X, and Doctor Spence were in an office, discussing the future of Cadmus._

 _"Cadmus changes today." Guardian told the other two. "With Desmond out of the picture, the board's placed me in charge. Dr . Spence, you're acting chief scientist. No more g-gnomes suppressing our wills, no more secret breeding projects. This is a kinder, gentler Cadmus."_

"Well thats good!" M'gann cheerfully said.

"Then I will of course help in any way I can, brother." Double X told him.

 _The screen zoomed out to show Guardian being observed by the ever-mysterious members of the Light, on their conference screens that only showed their silhouettes, and exaggerated voices._

"Oh. Whoa." Artemis gasped. Everyone leaned forward, hardly breathing, as they gave their full attention to the screen. It wasn't often one had an inside look at the enemy.

 _"Can the light afford to leave guardian in charge without the g-gnomes?" one of the voices asked._

 _"We have subtler means of control." another one reassured, but continued to voice other concerns. "What concerns me is the children. We now know The League is willing to employ young heroes to do their dirty work." and as he said this, a picture of Kid Flash, Robin, Superboy, and Aqualad appeared on another computer screen. A picture probably gained from security cameras, whatever what was recoverable._

 _"That's a dark twist." one stated._

 _"Yes, but one that can be played to our advantage. Even the temporary loss of the weapon may prove useful." a different voice said, and finished with darkly telling his colleagues, "Eventually everyone sees the light."_

There was a moment of shocked silence before Connor quietly asked, "Is that…all?"

"For that video segment it was." Robin grimly told him.

"Dude, what's up with you?" Wally asked, noticing his friend's disturbed state.

"Eventually, we have to show this to the League. Come on guys - cameras somehow gained serious inside footage of the Hall of Justice Cave, inside Cadmus, a major enemy organization…who knows, at this rate, with us being the ones who the footage focuses on, they might have footage of the Batcave too, or Watchtower. This is serious."

Everyone had listened solemn silence.

"So…should we contact the League?" M'gann asked, unsure. Everyone looked to Robin for the answer. He took a minute to think about it, his brow furrowed in deep thought.

"Not yet. For now, we keep going. Anyone opposed to playing the next one?"

* * *

Whoo! Got the second chapter up! Man these things take like 3 days to do….just unbelievable.

Sorry for any mistakes or errors!

Anyway, in response to all the questions in the reviews:

The League will come to watch it at a certain point - not the whole League, but obviously the mentors, plus Wonder Woman, Superman, etc.

This takes place right after Season 1 ended, so right after Auld Acquaintance. I'm thinking a week maybe. They know about Artemis' secret ID, but not Robin's. Will have some fun with that :)

I don't really think I'm going to have Zatanna or Rocket join this….I don't know why, but it just wouldn't seem as heartfelt. Maybe I'm just crazy. I dunno, but I have a serious attachment to the original team.

I won't be doing season 2. Reason number 1: Nightwing doesn't get even CLOSE to enough screen time, and Reason number 2: I'm still in denial about Wally's death

This shoutout goes to mielipieli - thanks so much! Hopefully your friends like the stories - although I am very partial to Robin in my writing, lol guilty pleasure. booyah!

Well, look for the next chapter, kay guys? Thanks for all the encouragement to keep going - I will! But it'll take some time, okay?


	3. Chapter 3

_The video showed nighttime in a harbor at Star City, July 17, 23:16 PDT._

"Is this your guys' first mission as a team?" Artemis asked. M'gann shook her head no, just as confused.

"No, judging by the date, this is the night before our first fight with a villain." M'gann told her, then focused her attention on the screen again.

 _A smuggling operation was underway, when the men and cargo were suddenly assaulted with arrows._

 _The Boss of the operations, Brick, picked up a gun then caught sight of the attacking vigilante. Addressing Speedy, he yelled, "You again! I'm startin' to get insulted Green Arrow's not messin' up my operations personally!"_

Wally and Robin snickered. "Give em' hell, Roy." Robin encouraged.

"Not that this isn't interesting, but what does this have to do with the next day's fight?" Connor asked.

"It will be explained in due time." Kaldur told him. Wally and Robin then sulked a bit, knowing what Roy was going to say next; it was a bit embarrassing. In fact, that, and the Twister incident, was all embarrassing.

 _He fired at Speedy, who effectively dodged while managing to shoot an arrow down the barrel of the gun; it exploded, making tatters out of Brick's shirt._

"Nice shot." Artemis reluctantly complimented.

"Don't feed his ego." Robin muttered.

 _"Do you know what I pay for a suit in my size?!" he bellowed, then addressed his henchmen; "Scorch the Earth, boys."_

"Yaa, like that worked out well." Robin mocked.

 _But before they could even fire a shot, the henchmen were assaulted by superspeed, batarangs, and water bearers. As the goons were taken down, Brick continued to launch boulders at Speedy, who fired back with exploding arrows while Aqualad helped with his water bearers._

"Wow. You guys got crap done." Artemis noted.

"See, we didn't blow everything up on all of our first embarkments as a team!" Wally remarked.

"No, but on your first mission together, you went to put out a fire, and ended up collapsing the whole building." Artemis replied, looking smug.

"Technically it wasn't on fire anymore, so we achieved the mission objective." Robin muttered.

"Besides, we didn't even go to Cadmus to deal with the fire! Thats totally beside the point." Wally added.

 _"The cave is perfect." The Atlantean told his friend, "It has everything the team will need."_

"Oh, you were trying to recruit Speedy?" M'gann asked.

Robin nodded.

"But he obviously refused?" Connor asked.

"Don't worry, it was a gentle letdown." Wally sarcastically reassured him.

 _"For covert missions, you know, spy stuff." Robin added, dropping down behind them._

"Spy stuff." Artemis mocked. "How specific."

 _"And wait till you see Superboy and Miss Martian." Kid Flash told the archer as he flipped up to join them. "But I saw her first." the speedster added._

Artemis smacked her boyfriend for that. Robin just snorted. "If you're smacking him now for that, you'll be stomping him into the ground for what he does the next day." he smirked, remembering the relentless flirting on the day of the Twister fiasco.

 _Brick launched another boulder at the gathered heroes, who scattered; Aqualad shattered the boulder with his water bearers, while Speedy kept firing arrows at Brick. However, these had no serious effect on the man, anymore than a punch to the gut would._

 _"Tell Arrow he shouldn't send boys to do a man's job." he smugly told the heroes. Speedy aimed another arrow at him._

"Meh, we got the job done." Wally commented, smirking at what happened to the crime boss next. The cocky sonnovagun.

 _"Go ahead." Brick cockily invited, stretching his arms out to make himself a perfect target. However when Speedy did, the arrow did not explode, but trapped Brick in an expanding, foamy red substance._

Artemis laughed at this; sometimes crime bosses were so stupid. They think being a little invulnerable means being completely invincible.

 _"High-density polyurethane foam - nice." Kid Flash voiced his approval._

Robin laughed, saying, "Geek," as he did so. Wally gave him a look that said, 'oh, you're one to talk, ya Mathlete hypocrite.'

 _"So, Speedy, you in?" Robin asked, who was casually leaning against a crate._

 _"Pass." the archer told them as he brushed off the offer. "I'm done letting Arrow and the League tell me what to do." he disgustedly continued, "I don't need a baby sitter or a clubhouse to hang out with the other kids."_

"Wow." M'gann breathed out. That was a real kick in the side. "That explains why you guys reacted so much to everything that happened the next day…"

 _"Your Junior Justice League is a joke, something to keep you busy - and in your place. I don't want any part of it." Speedy finished as he left, leaving prominent looks of shock on the faces of his friends._

"Okay, that was harsh." Artemis commented, shooting them sympathetic glances. Wally just shrugged in a 'hey, what can you do' manner.

 _The scene switched to the zeta tubes activating, announcing the arrival of.."Robin, B01; Kid Flash, B03." They gave each other a look of smug excitement before running to the middle of the room to meet the others._

Noticing how Wally ran only just ahead of Robin, Artemis pointed it out. "It's sweet how you always wait for Robin," she told her boyfriend. He just rolled his eyes.

 _"Did you ask him?" Robin inquired, in which Wally immediately followed up with "What did he say?"_

"Geez, it's like you guys are a bunch of 5 year olds excited over Christmas," Artemis snickered.

"Wait," she continued, "Were you like, stalking RT?"

Wally sighed. He couldn't wait until Artemis' induction into the team, so they could make fun of her for a change.

 _The team was looking at a computer screen tracking Red Tornado's travel._

 _"He's arriving now." Aqualad replied, sounding excited as well._

"Even Kal is jazzed over this, did you guys have some big plans?" Artemis asked, amused.

"No, but things turned out…interesting, anyway." Robin replied.

 _"Then what are we waiting for?" Wally asked, then ran out to meet the android, followed by everyone else._

 _"Red Tornado!" Wally greeted as Tornado landed._

 _"Greetings." RT replied, "Is there a reason you intercept me outside the cave?"_

"Yes, we were so bored we were about to start shooting the wall." Robin remarked, to Wally's amusement. He sighed when nobody else got the reference.

 _"We hoped you had a mission for us." Aqualad explained._

"But Batman deploys you on missions," Artemis pointed out.

"Sure, but there have been exceptions." Wally countered. He then coughed out something that sounded like 'Doctor Fate'

 _"Mission assignments are the Batman's responsibility." Tornado told them._

"Hate to say 'told you so', but…told you so." Artemis remarked.

"You love to say 'told you so'," Robin pouted.

Artemis suddenly pointed to the screen, saying, "Kal, your sandals kind of look like house slippers."

 _"But it's been over a week, and nothing -" Robin protested, but was cut off by Red Tornado, who told them, "You'll be tested soon enough. For the time being, simply enjoy each other's company."_

"I know you were all gung-ho to get a mission, but if it had been over a week, don't you guys think Batman had deliberately did that so you guys had a little bit of time to heal? You know, from Cadmus tumbling down?" Artemis asked them.

Robin sighed. She was kind of pointing out the obvious - cause for him, that's exactly what Batman had done. Benched him to allow his injuries to heal.

 _"This team is not a social club." Aqualad pointed out._

"Ya , cause if it was, Robin wouldn't be eligible ; no twelve year olds allowed," Wally teased, earning himself a smack from his best friend.

 _"No, but I am told social interaction is an important teambuilding exercise." RT countered, then started walking into the Cave as he added, "Perhaps you can keep busy by familiarizing yourself with the cave."_

M'gann winced at this choice of words, which seemed to echo from their encounter with Speedy. "That was…an unfortunate choice of words." The martian commented.

 _"Keep busy." Wally muttered as he nudged Robin's shoulder, both of them disgusted at the choice of words, their encounter with Speedy fresh on their minds._

"Now it makes sense." Connor remarked. "What?" Wally asked.

"Well, since I'd met you guys, your attitudes had been pretty cool, and you were easy-going, joking around, even when in trouble. I just didn't know what was up with the three of you that day, but obviously it was what happened with Speedy." the clone explained.

"Huh." Was all the response he got from Wally.

"Were we really that bitchy that day?" the speedster whispered to Robin.

"Probably, ya ." Robin admitted.

 _" Does he think we're falling for this?" Robin asked, annoyed._

 _"Oh, I'll find out." M'gann offered, and concentrated as she focused on reading Red Tornado's mind._

"But how can you read his mind?" Artemis asked, confused. Wally just flapped his hands towards the screen, gesturing for her to watch.

 _"Red Tornado, 16." the computer announced as Red Tornado was scanned, and verified for entry._

 _Everyone was looking at M'gann expectantly when she said, "I'm sorry. I forgot he's a machine, inorganic. I…cannot read his mind."_

"That's okay M'gann, you were still getting used to things on Earth, and with these circus clowns." Artemis reassured her while also teasing the boys.

 _"Nice try, though." Wally consoled, then flirtatiously asked, "So, uh, you know what I'm thinkin' right now?"_

 _Before M'gann could say anything, Robin scoffed and elbowed Wally. "We all know what you're thinkin' now." he told the speedster._

"Ow." Wally complained as Robin's sharp joint dug into his side.

"If he hadn't done it, I would've." Artemis told Wally, narrowing her eyes at him.

 _"And now we tour the clubhouse." Aqualad stated. Speedy's words were obviously in his head, as things seemed to play out as the archer had predicted._

"Okay, you guys are getting angry, and it's totally gonna cloud your judgement, and make you not think things all the way through." Artemis predicted.

"Don't be a smart-ass, Artemis." Robin advised.

"No, that's your bag, isn't it? she smugly retorted.

 _"Well, Superboy and I live here, we can play tour guides." M'gann suggested, and everyone turned to look at the two of them._

 _"Don't look at me." Superboy protested as unwanted attention was suddenly on him._

Everyone laughed at Connor's discomfort. "Cut him some slack, he was still learning how to interact and socialize." Robin told them, but he was still laughing too.

 _"We won't." Wally reassured, and turned back to M'gann. "A private tour sounds much more fun."_

Wally's obvious flirting earned him another smack from Artemis.

It was going to be a long day.

 _"Sh-she never said private." Robin protested, very irritated at his friend._

Snickering, Artemis said, "Somebody is getting very jealous!"

 _"Team building." Aqualad interjected,"We'll all go."_

"Thank goodness for Kaldur." Robin said, to general agreement from everyone.

 _As everyone turned around to enter the Cave, Robin jerked Wally back, practically throwing the speedster behind him._

This elicited laughs from everyone; he truly had been pissed at the speedster. "You are totally jealous!" Artemis accused, enjoying this way too much.

 _"So this would be our front door," M'gann told them, and then everyone was shown walking though a different entry as she continued, "And this would be the back."_

 _"The cave is actually the entire mountain." the martian girl explained._

"I got lost 3 times when exploring it for the first time." M'gann complained.

"I got lost too, but only because Robin deliberately gave me wrong directions and information. It took 3 hours to find out that there is, in fact, NOT a cheese room here in the Cave." Wally said, shooting Robin a dirty look.

Robin just smiled like the little troll he was. He'd had a lot of fun making those directions.

 _"It was hollowed out and reinforced by Superman and Green Lantern in the early days of the League." Wally added._

"Wow, you used your mouth for something other than flirting with M'gann. It's a historical moment." Robin sarcastically observed.

 _"Then why abandon it for the hall of justice?" Superboy asked,_

 _"The cave's secret location was… compromised." Aqualad answered._

 _"So they traded it in for a tourist trap? Yeah. That makes sense." Superboy scoffed._

"Eh, not quite." Wally said.

"It's not like I knew about the Watchtower." Connor replied, "but I guess the League is a little smarter than I gave them credit for."

"Well, on occasion," Robin snickered.

"Oh, and I'm the smart-ass?" Artemis asked, directing her comment at Robin, who just waved her off.

 _"If villains know of the cave, we must be on constant alert." M'gann concluded, concerned._

 _"The bad guys know we know they know about the place, so they'd never think to look here." Robin reassured her as he took her hand._

"Aaaand that made perfect sense." Artemis said, rolling her eyes. Sheesh. Bats.

 _"Uh, he means we're hiding in plain sight." Wally translated, removing Robin's hand from M'gann's._

 _"Ah, that's much clearer." M'gann commented, having previously been confused._

"But you still looked confused." Aqualad noticed, smiling a bit in amusement and sympathy.

 _"I smell smoke." Superboy stated, which elicited an immediate reaction from M'gann._

"That brought up a question later on." Wally said, leaning forward a bit as he addressed Connor. "Do you have super-smell?"

The phrasing of his question got everyone rolling in laughter, while Wally sputtered in his own defense, while trying to re-phrase the question.

 _"My cookies!" she exclaimed, then flew off to the kitchen. She telekinetically pulled them out of the oven, revealing black, crisp, burnt cookies as the boys walked in._

"Well, it was your first batch ever. First times don't always turn out well." Artemis consoled.

 _"I was trying out Grammy Jones' recipe from episode 17 of - Heh, never mind!" M'gann tried to explain._

"I understood that reference!" Wally shouted.

"And I understood _that_ reference!" Robin replied, grinning.

 _"I bet they'd have tasted great - he doesn't seem to mind." Robin consoled her, gesturing to Wally._

 _As everyone looked at Wally, who was eating the charred cookies, he made the excuse, "I have a serious metabolism."_

"Thats bull, you were just trying to score extra points with her." Artemis scolded.

"You'd dye your hair pink if you thought it'd impress a girl." Robin added.

"A prank that has already been played; let us not endure it a second time." Kaldur advised, remembering the incident.

 _"I'll.. make more?" M'gann offered, feeling a bit more heartened._

 _"It was sweet of you to make any." Aqualad told her._

 _"Thanks, Aqualad." she replied, sounding a bit relieved._

"Aww, you guys are bonding." Artemis cooed. "See? It wasn't a waste of time."

 _"We're off duty." Aqualad said, "Call me Kaldur'ahm. Actually, my friends call me Kaldur."_

 _"I'm Wally." the redhead told her, gazing at her, completely smitten."See? I already trust you with my secret I.D."_

"Pfft, do you tell that to every girl you meet?" Artemis asked.

"No, usually it's the other way around, where I'm telling them I'm Kid Flash." Wally responded, smirking as she rolled her eyes.

 _"Unlike Mister Dark Glasses over here." Wally continued, gesturing towards the youngest member._

Artemis crossed her arms, pouting a bit. "I can't believe after everything we've done and been through as a team, we still don't get to know your identity." she complained. M'gann sighed as well; she would like to know who their youngest teammate really was as well. Kaldur just looked like he was used to it, while Connor simply shrugged. Wally pointedly looked away from her.

 _Robin put his hands on his hips in a 'do you really want to go there?' attitude, glaring at Wally as he kept talking. "Batman's forbidden Boy Wonder from telling anyone his real name."_

"Judging by Robin's stance, and the look he's giving you, you really might want to shut up now." Artemis pointed out, but she was giving Wally a penetrating look. She had the feeling, that besides what the Batman had forbidden, that Wally knew Robin's real identity.

 _"Mine's no secret. It's M'gann M'orzz." M'gann announced. "But, you can call me Megan." she continued, "It's an Earth name, and I'm on Earth now."_

 _As Superboy started leaving the kitchen M'gann watched him and telepathically said, "Don't worry, Superboy. We'll find you an Earth name, too."_

"Oh, thats' what you said to him?" Wally realized.

 _Superboy looked at her in shock and anger, then shouted, "Get out of my head!"_

 _Everyone looked confused at the outburst until M'gann telepathically spoke to everyone, saying, "What's wrong? I don't understand. Everyone on Mars communicates telepathically."_

"Oh, no." Artemis groaned. She saw this going downhill.

 _Everyone clutched at their heads until Aqualad went, "M'gann, stop," much to her shock and confusion._

"Go easy on her." Artemis told the boys on the screen. "You did go easy on her, right?"

The boys shifted their gaze away from hers, shifted in their seats, or did both in awkward discomfort.

"I feel really sorry for you M'gann, being the only girl on the team for as long as you were." Artemis sympathized.

 _"Things are different on Earth." Aqualad explained, "Here, your powers are an extreme invasion of privacy."_

 _"Besides, Cadmus' creepy little psychic g-nomes left a bad taste in his brain." Wally told her, 'conspiratorially' gesturing towards Superboy._

 _"I-I didn't mean to -" she tried to apologize, but Superboy cut her off by angrily telling her, "Just. Stay. out!" before storming off to brood on one of the couches._

"Give her a break guys, it wasn't just a culture shock for her; she literally moved to a different planet. Geez." Artemis complained.

Sheesh. Boys.

 _M'gann looked very downcast, until an idea occurred to her. "Hello, Megan! I know what we can do!" she told everyone, flying off. Kaldur, Wally, and Robin just gave each other clueless looks, and Robin raised his hands up in a 'no idea' gesture before following M'gann._

"Thank goodness she's infinitely optimistic." Robin commented on M'gann upbeat personality. He didn't know what they would have done if she hadn't broke the brief but awkward silence.

 _However, M'gann doubled back, leaning around the corner. "Superboy, please?" she asked._

 _"Don't talk to me." he told her, but after a moment, relented, following her._

"Good boy." Artemis voiced her approval, much to Wally and Robin's amusement."He's not a dog!" Robin exclaimed, leaning into Wally as he laughed.

 _The team exited an elevator, walking into a hangar. A large pod was inside, red with black stripes._

"I feel like we need to name the bioship." Robin said in a thoughtful tone.

"Just take a page out of Connor's book and name it 'Bioship'," Wally suggested, to general amusement.

"Done and done." Robin replied.

 _"It's my martian bioship." M'gann proudly declared._

 _"Cute." Wally commented, "Not aerodynamic, but cute."_

 _"It's at rest, silly." M'gann replied, "I'll wake it."_

 _As she 'woke' it, the bioship transformed from the pod to a proper ship. M'gann telepathically turned it around and opened the ship's entry._

"Artemis, do you remember your reaction the first time you saw the bioship do that?" Robin asked, laughing at her. She just tossed a dirty look his way, then smacked her traitorous boyfriend when he laughed as well.

 _"Well, are you coming?" she asked the boys, who look wary and skeptical to say the least._

"Well you two sure can't talk, look at your faces! You look as if you're worried it's gonna eat you or something!" Artemis exclaimed.

 _The inside of the ship transformed into a control console with seats for everyone._

 _"Strap in for launch." M'gann said as Robin and Wally gave each other a look that said 'Holy crap this is cool' as they geeked out. They each ran to their seat, which strapped them in itself._

 _"Whoa!" Robin exclaimed in surprise, not expecting it at all and finding it bizarre._

"See!? The friggin Batman's protege was thrown off by it too!" Artemis practically shouted.

 _"Cool." was all the reaction Wally had to it; he was pretty chill about it._

 _"Red Tornado, please open the bay doors." M'gann requested. The Bay doors opened, and off they went, soaring through the air and doing several spins._

 _"Incredible!" Robin said, in awe at the ship's capabilities, and the view they had out their windows._

"It's a fun experience. I'm glad everyone is clocking in more time piloting the bioship." Kaldur commented."Who's in the lead?" Artemis asked."On the most flight time, or speed trials?" Wally asked, but suddenly looked sheepish as Robin smacked him.

"Wait, you guys have been racing the bioship?" M'gann asked, reproachfully. Artemis, Robin, and Wally looked incredibly guilty.

 _Wally sighed, and looking at M'gann, said, "She sure is."_

 _As M'gann glanced at him, Wally started stuttering. "I-I mean the ship, which, like all ships, is a, she."_

Robin laughed at Wally as he verbally tripped over his own feet.

 _"Fast with his feet, not so much with his mouth." Robin told M'gann, to Wally's horror._

 _"Dude!" the speedster protested, and then looked at Robin with a look of betrayal on his face. robin just continued to smugly look out the window._

"I thought we were bros!" Wally exclaimed, smacking the 13 year old. Robin and Artemis simply high-fived. She was incredibly grateful towards Robin for taking revenge as only a 'bro' can.

 _The focus of the scene switched to Aqualad and Superboy._

 _"I may not have psychic powers, but I can guess what you're thinking." Aqualad told Superboy. "You overreacted, and you don't know how to apologize." Giving the clone an encouraging look, the Atlantean advised, "Just say sorry."_

"Kaldur always has the best advice." Wally said. His statement was met with vigorous nods of agreement from everyone; there wasn't a single teammate who hadn't gone to the eldest member for advice.

 _"He'll come around." Robin reassured M'gann, who was looking troubled again._

 _"He doesn't seem to like me much." she voiced her worry._

 _"You guys remember he has super hearing, right?" Wally pointed out, utterly amused at the two._

 _Superboy just stared ahead, face at still and solid as stone._

Artemis was in fits of laughter from the conversation, and Connor's reaction to it.

"I work with geniuses." she gasped out.

"Laugh it up while you can." Robin replied.

 _Robin took it upon himself to break the sudden awkward tension. "Hey, how 'bout showing us a little martian shapeshifting?" he suggested to M'gann._

 _M'gann looked a little abashed, yet pleased as she complied._

 _Everyone's attention was on M'gann as she transformed herself and her clothes into an exact replica of Robin except…female. She then spun around, and transformed herself into a female Kid Flash._

Her performance earned applause from everyone. "It's just so cool." Robin appreciatively said.

"The gender bent version of you guys is actually pretty awesome." Artemis commented. "Now all we need is the gender bent Superboy and Aqualad!"

Connor and Kaldur had 'deer caught in headlights' expressions on their faces. Obviously they wanted nothing to do with this.

 _"Is it wrong that I think I'm hot?" Wally asked as he swooned over the gender bent version of himself._

"Yes." Robin and Artemis chorused.

 _"Impressive!" Robin complimented, applauding M'gann. "But, you know you're not exactly gonna fool anyone with those." he asked, indicating her 'upper assets' that were still quite obvious when she shapeshifted._

"Oh, point it out why don't you, Robin." Artemis remarked, throwing her hands up in exasperation.

"With four guys there, someone was going to point it out." Robin muttered in his defense.

 _"Mimicking boys is a lot harder." she explained, a bit embarrassed._

 _"And, your clothes?" Aqualad asked._

 _"They're organic, like the ship." M'gann explained, sounding pleased. "They respond to my mental commands."_

 _"As long as they're the only ones." Superboy commented. This immediately made M'gann's mood shift into a downcast one until Wally distracted her with another question_.

"Play nice, Connor." Artemis reprimanded.

 _" Can you do that ghosting through walls thing that manhunter does?"_

 _"Density shifting?" M'gann asked, then told him a bit self-consciously, "No. I-it's a very advanced technique."_

"Do not be discouraged M'gann; we all have much left to learn." Kaldur comforted.

 _Sensing her discomfort, Robin tried to make M'gann feel better by telling her, "Flash can vibrate his molecules right through a wall."_

"What are you…." Artemis started to ask, but trailed off when she saw Wally's face.

 _Wally suddenly looked alarmed at where Robin was going with this._

 _Laughing, Robin continued, "When he tries it - bloody nose."_

 _"Dude!" Wally exclaimed, his voice high in indignation._

Artemis raised her eyebrows at Robin's tactics, and ended up laughing at the obvious payback for all the 'flirting with M'gann and ignoring your bff'.

 _"Here's something I can do." M'gann told them, and the outside of the ship suddenly blended in with it's surroundings._

 _"Camouflage mode." she declared, but a transmission suddenly came in. "Red Tornado to Miss Martian. An emergency alert has been triggered at the Happy Harbor power plant. I suggest you investigate, covertly. I'm sending coordinates."_

Everyone except for Artemis groaned at this. They weren't keen on watching themselves get their butts kicked. Again.

 _"Received. Adjusting course." M'gann confirmed._

 _"Tornado's keeping us busy again." Robin complained._

 _"Well, a simple fire led you to Superboy. We should find out what caused the alert." M'gann replied._

"Hate to say 'told you so', but…" M'gann started to say, and Robin gave her a look of betrayal.

 _"I think I know the cause." Superboy told them, as he saw a tornado heading through the parking lot they were hovering over - a tornado heading straight towards them._

"He speaks!" Robin and Wally yelled, teasing Connor for being a man of few words.

"Wait, a tornado?" Artemis asked, baffled by a such an event happening in Happy Harbor.

 _The bioship became caught in the tornado, violently spinning, twisting, and torquing in it until M'gann was able to steer them out of it. She landed it away from the twister; everyone jumped out of the ship, and found themselves in a factory parking lot with another tornado happening behind the building._

"Nice piloting, M'gann." Artemis complimented.

"It's kind of funny how our first fight was with us in civvies." Wally commented.

 _Alarmed, Aqualad asked shouted,"Robin, are tornadoes common in New England?" but when his question received no answer, he looked behind him, only to find no sign of the young hero. "Robin?" Aqualad called._

Artemis then exclaimed, "You little shi-" but was cut off as Wally yelled in vexation to the ceiling, "The effing ninja thing!" He then gave Robin an accusatory glare. "You've been doing that to me since we first met."

 _"He was just here." M'gann commented, bewildered._

"Key word, 'was'." Connor remarked.

 _The windows on the factory were suddenly all being blown out. Inside the factory, a red android was generating wind, and blew Robin off of his feet and into a pillar; the hero fell hard onto the concrete floor. The rest of the team ran in as Robin was starting to prop himself up on his elbows._

"You're holding your ribs. They were still injured, weren't they?" M'gann asked, concerned. Robin had been knocked around quite a bit.

"Don't worry about it." Robin casually waved it off.

"Superstep to the chest?" Connor asked, him, grimacing as he remembered the Cadmus events.

"I said don't worry about it." Robin replied, then directed his attention to the screen.

 _Superboy jumped into the air, landing by Robin almost protectively._

" _Who's your new friend?" the clone asked._

 _"Didn't catch his name, but he plays kinda rough!" Robin replied, raising his voice a little._

"Why wouldn't you wait for reinforcements?" Artemis reprimanded. All he'd succeeded in doing was getting knocked around.

"Cause he's a stubborn, hardheaded bat." Wally answered.

 _"My apologies. You may address me as Mister Twister." the android told them, then attacked with more gusts of wind, sending Superboy flying into a concrete wall._

Artemis had literally face palmed when she saw the scarf. "Did he REALLY need the scarf?! What is that even supposed to be, a fashion statement?! Villains! Sheesh!" she ranted, gesturing to the screen. "And don't even get me STARTED on the name."

 _The rest of the team rallied together, ready to attack. With a shared nod between Aqualad and M'gann, they attacked. Kid Flash charged first, launching himself at the android, but was repelled by Twister's tornados and thrown out of the building, skidding across the parking lot._

"Poor Wally." M'gann sympathized.

"Yes, poor Wally." Wally agreed. He'd had Robin's sympathy until he'd said that. So he was smacked. In the arm.

Again.

 _Aqualad and M'gann charged as well, but were rebuffed just as Kid Flash was, except they were thrown into the inside structures of the building._

"How are you supposed to fight against that?! You can't get close enough!" Artemis exclaimed in concern.

 _Robin was the only one still standing, due to not having charged at Mister Twister. He ground his teeth together in a determined expression as he held a birdarang behind his back, ready to throw it._

"Birdie's getting mad." Wally observed. He hadn't been there for this part of the fight, so was keenly watching the screen.

 _"I was prepared to be challenged by a superhero." Mister Twister taunted, "I was not, however, expecting children."_

 _"We're not children!" Robin yelled as he launched his birdarangs at the android; one of them exploded in a tornado, missing the android, while the other penetrated Twister's chest plate. However, he flicked it away, and the device exploded somewhere off to the side._

 _"Objectively, you are." Twister said as he did this. "Have you no adult supervision? I find your presence here quite, disturbing."_

"And here is where you got the whole 'turbed' thing from." Wally realized. How typical. He's in the middle of a fight and he's butchering the English Language.

 _Him and Robin were still at a standoff, "Well, we hate to see you disturbed, let's see if you're more turbed, once we kick your can!" Robin retorted; his teammates, minus Kid Flash, had rejoined him._

"Is this where he, um, 'embarrassed you largely'?" Wally asked. M'gann, Connor, and Kaldur just sighed, and Robin elbowed him.

"Ow."

 _M'gann telepathically made a piece of machinery explode at Mister Twister, and Superboy launched himself at him, but was tossed back by a mini tornado; he flew into M'gann, and they were both brought down._

"Ohhh! Oww!" Artemis and Wally both exclaimed in sympathy, wincing for their friends.

 _Aqualad and Robin charged, but both got caught in a small tornado of their own, and were spun around until they were slammed into each other in midair._

"Dude, your ribs!" Wally exclaimed, horrified at the added rib-cage trauma his best friend was enduring. Artemis looked shocked as well. She couldn't help but be worried about Robin the most; Kaldur, M'gann, and Connor were biologically built much tougher, able to withstand much more physical abuse without sustaining damage. Robin, and well, herself, were only human.

 _"Indeed. That was quite turbing. Thank you." Twister told the fallen heroes as he turned and left._

"Ouch." Wally cringed on his teammates' behalf. Those were some humiliating parting words.

 _Kid Flash was recovering from his intimate encounter with the parking lot when he saw Twister leave the factory, and his teammates nowhere in sight. Using his superspeed, he cut the android off and confronted him. "What have you done to my team?" the speedster demanded to know._

"You must have been freaking out." Robin commented. When everyone gave him looks asking for further explanation, he continued. "Think about it. Wally had just woke up, having no idea how long he was out for, only to see Twister leaving the factory without a scratch, and without anyone in pursuit. That immediately makes him imagine 20 different worst case scenarios in which something terrible happened to us, and he's unable to go find out at that present moment, but he forces himself to stay calm."

Wally was being looked at with quite a bit of respect, while Robin was receiving stares that asked, 'how did you know that?'

"I know my best friend." Robin simply stated.

 _"Embarrassed them, largely." Mister Twister told him, gloating, then activated his tornados to toss Kid Flash back towards the factory; however, he never landed or hit anything. M'gann was telepathically holding onto him; the speedster was floating in the air._

"Thanks M'gann." Wally said. She gave him a thumbs up in reply.

 _"I got you, Wally." the martian girl told him._

 _"Whoa! Thanks." he replied as he was set down._

 _"I would have thought you had all learned your limitations by now." Mister Twister said._

"Wait, so he doesn't want to fight you? Then what does he want?" Artemis asked,

 _"What do you want?!" Aqualad angrily yelled._

 _"Isn't it obvious?" Twister asked, raising himself into the air, "I'm waiting for a real hero."_

"Pfft, well buddy, you found some." Artemis told the android on the screen. Wally grinned at his girlfriend.

 _"Read his mind. find a weakness." Aqualad ordered M'gann._

 _"I thought I wasn't supposed to do that!" M'gann replied,_

 _" It's ok with the bad guys!" Robin exclaimed._

"Well it's not like you guys ever explained that!" Artemis scolded, "What was she suppose to do, read your mind?"

"Down, girl." Robin muttered.

"Excuse me?" she retorted.

"Fine; down, Goddess." Robin corrected.

Artemis was about to blow when Wally, in a desperate attempt to avoid an Archer vs Acrobat battle, exclaimed, "You're missing it!", gesturing to the screen.

 _Holding her hand to her head in concentration, M'gann focused. "Nothing, I'm getting nothing!" she told them, then a look of realization settled upon her face._

 _"Hello, Megan! Mister Twister is Red Tornado in disguise." she revealed, to everyone's shock. "He's inorganic, an android. And how many androids do you know that can generate tornados?" she continued._

"oh no." Artemis groaned. "It's not Red, you guys, he wouldn't do that."

"We're entitled to be stupid teens at least sometimes." Wally defended.

 _"Red Tornado sent us here." Aqualad stated, temper rising._

 _" After saying we'd be tested soon enough!" Robin continued, "This is his test, something to keep us busy."_

 _"Speedy called it. We're a joke." Kid Flash said, disgusted._

"This was a series of very unfortunate coincidences." Robin observed from the different point of view.

 _Aqualad brought his fist and hand together in anger. He turned around and walked towards the android, and everyone followed._

 _"This game, so over." Kid Flash said._

"This isn't gonna end well." Artemis moaned.

"You're preaching the the choir, Goddess of the Moon." Robin replied. She gave him a dirty look. "Keep it up, Boy Wonder, keep it up." she warned.

 _"We know who you are and what you want." Robin told Twister._

 _"So let's end this." Aqualad declared._

 _"Consider it ended." Mister Twister stated, then raised his hands; massive vortex winds were created, along with thunder and lightning. It was a tremendous, ominous display._

"Well, shit." Artemis deadpanned.

"Basically, ya." Connor agreed.

 _"An impressive show, but we will not indulge you. We will not engage!" Aqualad yelled._

 _"Uh, can Red Tornado, do that?" Kid Flash asked, gesturing towards the storm Twister was creating._

"Ehhh…no." Robin answered.

 _"You think I'm Tornado? Ironic." the android remarked as he sent a massive strike of lightning at the group of heroes, causing the ground to explode and the team to be sent flying backwards._

"Ouch." Robin complained.

"Some androids are just too arrogant. Its annoying." Wally pointed out.

"What's annoying is that stupid scarf." Artemis grumbled. "And were you guys okay?"

"Yes." Kaldur told her.

 _When the dust cleared, everyone was on the ground but Superboy. Ripping off his tattered jacket, he launched himself at Twister, only to be met with two beams of lightning. He was sent careening towards the ground._

"Holy crap." Artemis breathed out. Everyone else had wide eyes as well as they watched the action they were unconscious for.

 _Mister Twister advanced menacingly on the unconscious heroes._

"Wake up!" Artemis shouted at them. Robin threw a pillow at her for being too loud.

 _However, M'gann came to, when Twister had almost reached them. The team suddenly disappeared from view, literally turned invisible; Twister stopped where he was in midair._

 _"Fine, then. I won't deny you children have power, but playing hide-and-seek with you would not help me achieve my objectives, so stay concealed." Twister told them. "If you confront me again, I will show, no, mercy." he threatened, then left._

"Wow." Robin said. He hadn't been awake for that threat. It was pretty foreboding.

" _What happened?" Kid Flash asked her, as everyone else came to._

 _"I placed the bioship between us." M'gann offered as an explanation and a half-apology. Superboy surprised everyone as he punched a boulder, shattering it in his temper._

"Channel that anger, Supes." Wally advised. Connor launched a pillow at the redhead, knocking the wind out of him. Robin was doubled over from laughter, while Artemis yelled at them all to shut up.

 _"And that's supposed to make it right? You tricked us into thinking Twister was Red Tornado." Superboy angrily accused._

"Sorry M'gann." Connor apologized for being so harsh.

 _"She didn't do it on purpose." Aqualad defended her._

"Ya, cut her a break guys." Artemis agreed.

 _"I-it was a rookie mistake. We shouldn't have listened." Robin added._

 _"You are pretty inexperienced." Wally told her. They all looked like they were nursing some bruised pride._

"You look like a bunch of angry puppies," Artemis laughed. Robin indignantly went "Hey!" at this comparison.

 _"Hit the showers. We'll take it from here." Kid Flash suggested._

 _"Stay out of our way." Superboy demanded. He did a super-leap in the direction that Twister took off in, Kid Flash supersped in the same direction, and Robin followed behind them._

"You guys are being so mean!" Artemis accused, "Apologize to her."

'Sorry M'gann' was echoed by all four boys. Okay, so maybe their frustration had made them a little mean.

 _"I was…just trying to be part of the team." M'gann apologized to Aqualad, ducking her head, her bangs covering her eyes._

 _"To be honest, I'm not sure we really have a team." Aqualad told her before he ran off in the direction of the others. M'gann was left by herself, sitting on the ground, her figure hunched and head bowed._

"The team's moment of crisis and questionable self identity." Robin observed. Connor and Wally rolled their eyes.

"What!" Robin defended himself, "Every good story had one!"

 _The scene switched to tornados wrecking the harbor, and people fleeing as the destruction continued._

 _"Certainly this will get the required attention." Mister Twister stated, and he was immediately answered._

"Attention whore." Connor muttered, just like he had with Icicle Junior. This again sent Wally and Robin into hysterics. "Connor wouldn't like Kim Kardashian," Robin told Wally, who then laughed even harder.

 _"You got ours, full and undivided!" Kid Flash announced as he sped towards Twister and landed a blow._

"Where's Robin and Kaldur?" Artemis asked.

"We were still running there." Kaldur told her. "Robin had been contemplating playing 'Eye of the Tiger' during our run there. I advised against it."

 _"Immaterial and insufficient! You are a distraction I can no longer tolerate." Mister Twister replied, but Superboy then came down from the sky with a battle cry, pushing Twister backwards. As they began the battle, the scene switched to M'gann talking to Red Tornado from the bioship._

 _"The team really needs your help." she told Red, who replied, "If I intervened, it would not be to help. Still, it is an odd coincidence that this Twister shares my elemental abilities, and my immunity to telepathy."_

"What is his point?" Artemis asked, confused, while the boys all had looks of realization on their faces.

 _This gave M'gann a realization of what needed done. "Hello, Megan!" she exclaimed._

"What's going on?" Artemis asked.

"M'gann has a plan." Robin simply told her. Artemis narrowed her eyes at him, trying to decide whether he had meant for that to rhyme or not.

 _The scene switched back to the battle with Mister Twister, which Aqualad and Robin joined now that they'd arrived. Twister had just thrown a boat at Superboy when he turned to confront Aqualad. The Atlantean was able to maneuver around one tornado, but got caught in another, and was thrown into a victorian era looking house nearby._

"Come on guys!" Artemis rooted for them, watching the fight like a football fan watching football.

 _Wally and Robin continued to attack, as did Superboy, but to little effect. They weren't doing much more than keeping Twister distracted, busy._

 _Twister then threw Superboy into the same house he'd launched Aqualad into, then took a boat and threw it after Superboy. Aqualad managed to jump out of the way as Superboy and the boat landed, totally collapsing the house._

"OH!"

"Crap!"

"Wow!"

"Poor Supey!" everyone said at the same time. He was having a rough go.

 _While Aqualad attacked Twister the a boat motor, Robin and Kid Flash assessed the situation from behind a ship that had been forced into the ground, the back of the ship pointed upward, facing the sky. Taking out his utility belt, Robin put it on, wearing it under one arm and over the other shoulder._

"Where did you - how did you," M'gann tried to ask, but decided to forget it. She'd never gotten an answer to the last question she'd asked him regarding concealed weapons anyway. It had actually sparked an interesting conversation between the team (minus Robin) about where he kept his endless supply of birdarangs.

 _"You brought your utility belt?" Kid Flash asked, amused._

 _"Never leave home without! First thing Batman taught me." Robin replied._

Wally laughed at what this implied. School, social events, galas, field trips, hanging with Barbara, or just a casual outing with him and Roy; Robin was never without his utility belt. It was just funny.

 _"Yeah, right after never go to the bathroom without it." the speedster remarked._

"Very mature, Wally." Robin told him.

"Listen to me, all of you." Megan's voice suddenly cut through all of their heads.

 _"What did we tell you?" Superboy angrily replied._

 _"I know, and I know I messed up, but now I'm very clear on what we need to do. Please trust me." M'gann pleaded, talking to them from the bioship._

"And you listened to her, right?" Artemis asked.

"I already told you; M'gann has a plan." Robin replied.

"Well, at least someone does." she muttered.

 _More people were running away from the chaos as a cop yelled, "Get back! Everyone clear the area!"_

 _Red Tornado suddenly came into view, flying through the air. One man watched with relief and a smile as he saw Red Tornado arrive at the scene of chaos._

M'gann and Connor practically jumped out of their seats at this moment, and started widely gesturing to the screen while exclaiming, "Thats out teacher! We know him! He's our teacher!"

 _"Hit the showers, boys." Red told the team as he landed in the heart of the confrontation._

"Wait a second…"Artemis said, scrutinizing the screen. "Hit the showers….thats what Wally had said, and that's…that's M'gann! Oh, very nice, they deserved that one!" Artemis yelled, as she realized what was going on.

" _I_ was _hoping you could handle this. Clearly you cannot." he reprimanded further._

 _"But we've got a plan now." Robin argued._

"Why is it almost always Robin arguing with Red?" Wally asked, causing Robin to completely deny that.

 _"The subject is not up for debate." Red Tornado replied, so the boys sulked away, leaving Red Tornado to fight Mister Twister._

 _"I was beginning to believe you'd never show up." Twister taunted._

 _"I'm here now." Was Red Tornado's response as he created a tornado and launched it at Twister._

"Played right into our hands." Wally smirked.

"It was a really good plan, M'gann." Robin congratulated.

" _We are evenly matched, Twister." he told his foe as he launched another whirlwind tornado, and a barrage of rocks at him._

 _"No, Tornado, we are not." Twister countered, repelling the attack, as he shot bolts of electricity at Red. One of the bolts hit a boat, which exploded, knocking Red out of the air and leaving him motionless on the ground._

Kaldur was avidly watching the fight play out; he had been waiting underwater, ready to do his part. "Were you okay?" he asked M'gann, who smiled reassuringly.

 _"Remain still, android." Twister ordered as wires extended from his fingers, attaching themselves to Red's head. "The reprogramming won't take long."_

 _"Longer than you might think." M'gann suddenly replied as she grabbed the wires while transforming her head from 'Red Tornado' to herself._

"YES!" Artemis exclaimed, "Genius!", and Robin and Wally high-fived, Connor hugged M'gann into his side, and Kaldur was applauding the performance.

 _"No!" Twister exclaimed in disbelief; while caught of guard, M'gann telepathically sent Twister careening backwards, where he was met by a tornado created by Kid Flash. He was tossed back again by this, and Superboy attacked, landing devastating blows that greatly damaged the internal organs of the Twister, as he was smoking and short circuiting. The android was then punched into he harbor, where underwater, Aqualad swung an anchor at the chest plate, and electrocuted him, and also dismembered one arm. Twister was then thrown out of the water, and once on land again, M'gann telepathically took him to the skies, where he dismembered his other arm. While Twister was still in the sky, Robin launched several birdarangs at him, which exploded upon contact, the force sending the devastated android to the ground._

Everyone cheered for their teammate when it was their turn with Mister Twister, and Artemis was enjoying the fight way too much. She was still shouting abuse at the android for the 'effing scarf'.

 _Mister Twister sat up on his knees; the chest plate opened, revealing a scraggly looking man, who fell out. "Foul. I-I call foul." he said, but not a moment later, M'gann telepathically lifted a huge boulder, and brought it down with deathly force on the man while Aqualad shouted, "M'gann, no!"_

Artemis was looking on in shock, switching her gaze from the screen, to M'gann, and then to the rest of the team, who seemed completely chill with her killing the man.

"What's wrong with you guys? I know the guy was an arrogant prick with terrible fashion sense, but you're acting a bit cold right now!" she exclaimed at them.

 _Everyone looked on for a moment in shock and horror when Robin approached M'gann furiously. "Don't know how things are done on Mars, but on Earth, we don't execute our captives!" he exclaimed._

 _M'gann looked at him for a second before responding, saying "You said you trust me." as she lifted the boulder up, revealing…robotic parts. The scraggly man had been a robot._

 _"That's why I couldn't read his mind." M'gann stated, referring to the robotic remains._

"A robot controlling another robot." Artemis stated, then shook her head while muttering, "Villains."

 _Picking up one of the glass eyeballs, Kid Flash said, "Cool. Souvenir."_

"Our first one!" Wally exclaimed happily.

"No, Supey was our first souvenir." Robin corrected, and they both started laughing.

 _"We should have had more faith in you." Aqualad apologized to M'gann._

 _"Yeah." Wally agreed, "You rocked this mission. Get it? Rocked." He had stopped flirting since Robin embarrassed him on the bioship. but was right back to it, crappy puns included._

Artemis and Robin smacked Wally at the same time.

"Come on!" he complained. "One for the flirting," Artemis told him,

"And one for the horrible pun." Robin finished.

 _However, unknown to the team, they were being watched. The leftover eye from the robotic remains was still intact, and glowed red, recording the heroes._

This caught everyone off guard, and they leaned forward in surprise and they watched with much greater intensity.

 _"Ignore him." Robin told M'gann, unaware that they were being watched. "We're all just turbed you're on the team."_

"HOW many people do we have watching us!" Robin exclaimed in complete exasperation, but fell silent as everyone went "SSSSHHHHH!"

 _The team was then shown being watched on a screen._

 _"Thanks. Me, too." M'gann replied, before the transmission was cut off._

 _"Now, Brom, aren't you relieved I didn't let you wear the armor?" A man in a lab coat asked, a scientist presumedly._

"Another crazy labcoat?" Wally asked, and was also shushed.

 _"Extremely, professor, but you're not upset?" 'Brom' replied; the apparent assistant was apparently the model for the human looking robot inside of Mister Twister._

 _"I'm convinced our tracking program was operational, and that the real Tornado was somewhere in the vicinity." The scientist calmly answered. "Besides, you know science advances in fits and starts. Even failure can be instructive, and I'd say we learned quite a lot today."_

"That all had to do with the Red Fiasco and Yellowstone!" M'gann exclaimed.

 _The scene switched to the Cave, where the Team and Red Tornado were analyzing the robotic remains._

 _"It was clearly created to sabotage or destroy you." Kaldur told Red._

 _"Agreed." the android replied._

 _"Is that why you wouldn't help us?" M'gann asked._

 _"No." Red told her. "This was your battle. I do not believe it is my role to solve your problems for you. Nor should you solve mine for me."_

"That's…nice?" Artemis contemplated.

"Well, mutual respect." Wally added.

"I still have no regrets about us helping him at Yellowstone." Robin said.

 _"But if you're in danger -" M'gann started to ask, cut Red cut her off by saying, "Consider this matter closed." then walked off to the zeta beam._

 _"Batman, Aquaman, and Flash, they'd have jumped right in to fix things." Wally remarked as Red Tornado walked away._

"Well ya, they're kind of mother hens." Artemis pointed out, but then quickly added, "But you NEVER heard me say that."

Robin and Wally couldn't stop laughing at Batman being called a mother hen.

 _"Guess if we're gonna have a baby sitter, a heartless machine is exactly what we need." Robin observed._

"Robin!" Artemis reprimanded, "That was pretty harsh!"

The acrobat just crossed his arms and sunk into his seat further. He hated this footage.

 _"Dude! Harsh." Wally replied._

 _"And inaccurate." Red Tornado informed them from across the room, interjecting into the conversation unexpectedly "I have a heart, Carbonsteel alloy. I also have excellent hearing."_

"Oooh. Ouch." Wally said, and Artemis face palmed in agreement.

 _Wally closed his eyes in an 'aww, ouch. awkward, bro.' expression as Robin started to apologize. "Right, sorry. I'll strive to be… more accurate." Robin told Red Tornado, looking abashed._

 _"And more respectful." Kaldur added, putting a hand on Robin's shoulder and crouching down to be almost eye level with him._

"That was awkward." M'gann observed.

"You're telling me." Robin muttered.

 _Robin, Kaldur, and Wally started walking away together down a hallway._

 _"Speedy was so wrong." Wally commented, sounding happy._

 _"This team thing," Robin added, and Kaldur continued, "Might just work out."_

"Ya, it just might." Artemis agreed, smiling. Everyone shared a triumphant look.

 _Superboy and M'gann were left in the room, and before Superboy left, he turned to M'gann. "Sorry." he told her, genuinely apologetic._

"Aww!" Wally and Robin cooed, causing the couple to look uncomfortable and embarrassed.

 _M'gann smiled as he walked away._

"Thanks for the advice, Kaldur." Connor told him.

"Is that the end of this one?" M'gann asked.

"Yes." Robin answered. "And the next one would be…"

"Santa Prisca," Wally moaned as he buried his face in a pillow. "Damn."

"This is exhausting." Connor said.

"It's only getting started." Robin predicted.

"We've got a long way to go."

* * *

Thanks for all the support you guys, you're the best :) And see? I said I'd be updating once a month, and didn't lie! It's the last day of the month, but still counts!

So I'm at 33 stories! I'm gonna get that story count to 40, cause after that, 50 is the next stop! And once I reach 50, stories, I'm on my way to 100!

In the last Author Note, I listed two reasons why I will not be doing Season 2, and have 2 more to add.

Reason number 3: Aliens, everywhere. Season two was crazy with aliens here, there, left, right up above, down below, I mean, practically the whole time I was like, WHAT the BLEEP is happening?!

Reason number 4: I refer to Wally and Dick when I say, Where's the bromance?!

RESPONSES TO REVIEWERS:

Shoutout to DavidxEmber: keep an eye out for your suggestion, I'll be using it! Booyah! XD

caripr94: Thank you for the advice, I took it to heart when writing Kaldur - hope I didn't make any more mistakes with him speaking! Thanks again for pointing that out so I could fix it in this, and future chapters.

namelessandgameless: Yes, it was a "We're Not a Couple" reference! I'm grinning like an idiot cause of everyone who caught that, haha

Tanzaniteblue: yep, I was looking at the word count in shock when I first noticed it! And this chapter was almost 9 thousand words! Yikes!

My eyes are killing me. This is getting posted right now, sorry for any errors. I'll try to fix them later tonight.

Happy Holidays everyone, and next month, make sure you keep an eye out for the next chapter on this…

But before I go -

Are there any fanboys in our midst? if you guys are out there, HOOT LIKE A BARN OWL, give us a sign!

And by the way, I like your guys' shoelaces.


	4. Chapter 4

"Hurry UP!" Artemis yelled to Robin and Wally, who had been getting more pillows from the bedrooms and were coming back up the hallway with them.

"One second!" Robin loudly replied. Apparently they'd taken a detour in the kitchen. The sound of cabinet doors closing was heard, along with the crinkling of plastic.

"Don't forget the skittles!" M'gann yelled at them; Connor mumbled something to her, and she added, "Plus the gatorade!"

"We don't have 8 hands you know!" Robin hollered back.

"We're starting it without you!" Artemis threatened.

"One SECOND please!" Wally yelled, and moment later they came into the living room, arms full of pillows, bags of potato chips, twizzlers, gatorade….and Robin was balancing a bowl of pretzels on top of his head like it wasn't even there. Artemis shot him a strange look.

With his mouth full, Wally answered her silent inquiry by saying what sounded like 'old circus trick', but Robin elbowed him hard because of it.

Everyone settled in and Robin played the paused tape.

 _The screen showed the inside of a factory, and the words 'Santa Prisca June 19, 00:43 ECT'._

"Oh, wonderful." Connor groaned.

"Crap." Robin said in sudden realization of something, and he whispered whatever it was to Wally.

Wally looked at Artemis for a second, before turning to Robin and saying, "I'm sure she'll be a good sport about it," a remark that earned him an elbow in the rib, and an annoyed look from Robin.

 _Henchmen in red cloaks and hoods were surrounding Bane and several of his own henchmen with machine guns._

"Can't say I'm sorry to see that." Robin remarked. There were some hard feelings between him and the gangster.

 _One of the red-cloaked men said in Spanish, "Our sublime Master proclaims he will depart this facility, if….one of you defeats his champion in single combat."_

"What's going on?" Artemis asked, "Is this some sort of cage fight?"

 _Walking towards the man issuing the challenge, Bane replied, "Just make it interesting."_

"It is interesting to see what happened before we actually arrived." Kaldur observed.

 _Going into the arena-like area in which they were going to fight, Bane faced his opponent - a scrawny red-headed young dude with horrid fashion sense._

"Oh my GOSH." Artemis exclaimed, eyes wide. "I don't know where to put my eyes."

"So you don't like his sideburns?" Wally asked,

"Or maybe it's the crop top," Robin offered.

"Nah, must be the dog collar," Wally concluded,

"I dunno," Robin disagreed, "Those pants give 'low cut' new meaning."

 _Bane was given back his strength-inducing steroid, to his surprise. "You give me back my greatest weapon?" he asked the red-cloaked man. "What's the catch?"_

 _"No catch." the cloaked henchman replied. "It would hardly test his champion's prowess if you were not at your best."_

"So Mammoth beat Bane at his 'best'. Says a lot for that type of venom." Robin said quietly.

"Huh?" Artemis asked.

"Don't tell her!" M'gann said, "No spoilers!"

"So…then I should definitely NOT tell her that Snape killed Dumbledore?" Wally asked sarcastically.

"What!?" Connor exclaimed, shocked.

"Wally, I'd just gotten Connor into Harry Potter!" Robin reprimanded.

 _Putting his 'weapon' on, Bane rhetorically asked, "You want my best?" then plugged the steroid into the intake port in the back of his head._

"Oh gross." M'gann said.

 _The chemical immediately went into effect; enlarging Bane's muscles, bulging veins, making him grow to an immense size._

"OH GROSS!" she literally yelled this time, while everyone else cringed and voiced their own shock at seeing the transformation.

Everyone was transfixed by the screen.

"Is anyone gonna point it out?" Artemis asked. Wally and Robin immediately shook their heads no.

"Do I have to be the person to point it out? Come on," she complained.

"You're the one who brought it up," Robin mumbled.

"Brought what up? M'gann asked.

"The fact that everything suddenly got bigger except for his ass!" Artemis exclaimed.

 _"You got it." he answered._

 _A lady henchwoman on the opposing side injected a purple chemical into Bane's opponent's blood._

"Bad idea bad idea," Robin was repeating,

"This guy's gonna hulk out like Desmond, great," Wally complained

 _The scrawny redhead began clutching his head in pain, before growing grotesquely is size, transforming into a beast-like creature._

"Holy CRAP!" Artemis exclaimed, while everyone else was voicing their own shock at the transformation.

"But his pants!" Wally exclaimed. "Just like Desmond! Everything else ripped and fell off and was gone, but the pants somehow magically expanded and stayed on!"

"And what part of that are you complaining about?" Robin asked,

"….Good point." Wally said.

 _He attacked Bane, who landed a few punches before he was brutally taken down and immobilized._

Everyone went "oh," "Oh," "WHOA," at the blows Mammoth was delivering, and how brutal the short fight was.

 _Upon Bane's defeat, the red-cloaked henchmen started chanting, "Hail Kobra. Hail Kobra." over and over again._

"What mindless twits," Artemis complained. Wally and Robin immediately started chanting, " Hail Kobra, Hail Kobra," but stopped once she took their gatorade away. They then started chanting "Hail Hydra, Hail Hydra," until she took their pretzels away, and again with "Heil Hitler, Heil Hitler," until she threatened to separate them. After that they finally shut up.

 _Kobra was then revealed, a pale, intimidating, smug, and cloaked figure gazing at his winner._

"Greetings, Voldemort," Robin remarked, and Wally snorted in amusement.

"Wait, that's what he looks like?" Connor asked, skeptical.

"In similar aspects." Wally explained.

 _The screen switched to show the bioship, with the words 'Carribean Sea June 22, 20:08 ECT' on the screen._

Wally started humming the Pirates of the Caribbean theme, but stopped when Artemis shot him a warning look.

 _The team was sitting silently and stoically, until Miss Martain broke the silence by annoucing, "We're approaching Santa Prisca."_

"Aaaad here's where the fun begins!" Artemis announced giddily.

"How would you know?" Robin asked.

"Cause you are are trouble when you walk in," she replied, "I'm guessing this mission will end in flames. It's like you're guys' MO."

"….shut up." Wally provided as a comeback.

 _Robin was then focused on, as the screen changed to a flashback from earlier._

 _The team was in their civvies at the Cave, being informed about their mission._

 _"This island nation is the primary source of a dangerous and illegal neosteroid; a strength enhancing drug sold under the street name Venom." Batman told them, as everyone focused on the images the computer had brought up. "Infrared heat signatures indicate their factory Is still operating at full capacity, but all shipments of Venom have been inexplicably cut off." the Dark Knight continued, "That's where this team comes in."_

"Okay, I follow," Artemis nodded, like she was being briefed too.

 _"This is a covert recon mission only. Observe and report." He clearly told them. "If the Justice League needs to intervene, it will."_

"I'll keep in mind the phrase 'covert recon mission only'" Artemis said, smirking.

 _"The plan requires two drop zones." Batman went on._

 _"So who's in charge?" Robin asked his mentor._

Everyone except Artemis sighed.

"What a simple, yet loaded question." Artemis observed.

"Kind of wish that it had been established before we actually deployed on the mission." Connor mumbled.

"You can say THAT again," Wally agreed, rolling his eyes. What a fiasco that had been.

 _The question seemed to catch Batman, and Red Tornado (who was standing right beside him), off guard. They turned quickly to look at Robin, before meeting each other's gaze._

Artemis started laughing hysterically. "They look like two parents who just got asked where babies come from!"

Everyone else started snickering as well, but Wally and Robin ended up in full blown laughter for some reason.

Because in the past, Robin really HAD gotten to ask The Batman where babies came from.

 _"Work that out between you." Batman told Robin as he faced toward him again._

 _Robin smiled and nodded in confirmation._

"Ooohhh, I see where this is going," Artemis realized.

"No you don't." Robin said.

 _The scene switched back to present time on the bioship, where Robin was again smiling._

"You'll be turning that smile upside down," Wally teased,

"Shut up, Wally," Robin told him, while M'gann giggled.

 _"Drop zone A in 30." Miss Martian announced; Aqualad reacted by preparing for the drop. Standing up, he switched his costume to stealth mode before saying, "Ready."_

 _"Putting bioship in camouflage mode." Miss Martian stated, as the bioship swooped down closer to the water. Dropping out of the bioship, Aqualad made a perfect dive into the water._

"8.7!" Robin yelled out, scoring the dive,

"9.1!" Wally called as his score,

"9.7!" M'gann joined in, nudging Connor, who sighed and said, "9.5".

Kaldur laughed as everyone looked at Artemis expectantly; rolling her eyes, she said, "Fine, 8.9."

 _Swiftly swimming, he passed underwater mines, then cut through a net with his water bearers before leaping out of the water and onto the beach._

 _Running to a machine, he plugged a piece of tech into it then radioed the rest of the team; "Heat and motion sensors are patched," he told them,"Data is now on a continuous loop. Move in."_

"Perfect execution," Artemis noted, "Now where did it go wrong?"

M'gann laughed while Connor sighed.

"It was a learning curve!" Robin exclaimed.

 _"Drop zone B." Miss Martian said as she made the bioship hover over a clearing with no trees. She lowered lines for everyone to use so they could drop down out of the bioship._

 _Robin and Kid Flash each clipped the lines onto their belts, then the speedster switched to camouflage mode._

 _"How cool is this?" he directed towards Miss Martian, who replied, "Very impressive." She then morphed her outfit into her own version of 'stealth mode', to Kid Flash's admiration._

"I believe I would score that a perfect 10," Kaldur commented, and everyone laughed.

 _"Uh, that works, too." the speedster said, then directed his attention to Superboy. "Hey, Supey! Not too late to put on the new stealth tech!"_

"Pfft, good luck with that," Artemis scoffed, and Connor crossed arms in front of his chest.

 _"No capes, no tights." Superboy replied, crossing his arms in front of him. "No offense."_

"I think Robin would be the most offended at that," Wally laughed.

"Hey, I was against the cape!" Robin defended,

"Really?" M'gann asked,

"Of course, but Batman wouldn't budge on it," he replied.

 _"It totally works for you." Miss Martian approved, staring at Superboy dreamily._

"And I'm right, aren't I Artemis?!" M'gann exclaimed, and the blonde laughed in agreement. Connor looked a bit embarrassed.

 _Superboy turned to look at Miss Martian after her comment; embarrassed, she immediately tried to backtrack. "In that you can totally do good work in those clothes," she said, but Superboy looked away, and didn't react or reply._

"You can make things really awkward sometimes with your brooding silence, Connor," Wally teased. Connor just shrugged.

"Eh, I've been used to that sort of thing for years," Robin commented.

 _Miss Martian pulled her hood over her head and turned camouflage in embarrassment._

 _The bottom of the bioship opened; Miss Martian, Kid Flash, and Robin smoothly descended, landing quietly on the ground. Looking up, they all leapt out of the way; Superboy had jumped out of the bioship, making a small crater as he landed where the others had just been standing._

Kaldur looked on with a completely resigned, 'of course he did' expression while everyone else laughed at Connor's 'stealth'.

 _"Knew I didn't need a line." Superboy deadpanned, smug and pleased with himself._

"Nah, lets just create a seismic event instead!" Artemis laughed, and Connor did too.

 _"And yet creating a seismic event may not have helped us much with the covert!" Robin exasperatedly told him from where he was sitting, leaning against a tree._

"You seem upset," Wally observed, sniggering. Robin ignored him and pretended to be reading something on his phone.

 _The three who's scattered regrouped again around Superboy._

 _"Aqualad, drop B is go." Miss Martian radioed Aqualad, who was climbing a cliff._

"Wow, Kaldur's kicking butt!" Artemis exclaimed, and everyone agreed.

 _"Head for the factory." he replied, "I'll track your GPS and rendezvous ASAP."_

 _"Roger that." Robin told him, shutting down his wrist computer then taking off with his teammates towards the factory._

 _They moved swiftly and efficiently through the forest and across some rocky terrain, until coming to the forest again._

"We got off to a good start at least," Connor said.

"Wait isn't this where you disappeared?" Wally accusingly said to Robin,

"Geez Wally, you'd think I'd abandoned a baby - oh wait, I did!" Robin quipped, and things escalated quickly almost into a wrestling match until Artemis kicked both of them off the couch. They gave her a wounded look.

 _A twig snapped in the distance._

 _"Did you hear that?" Superboy asked; Kid Flash and Miss Martian turned towards him._

 _"Uh, no." Kid Flash replied, "Wait. Is this a super hearing thing?"_

 _"You do have great ears." Miss Martian commented._

"I…guess?" Wally agreed, looking at Connor's ears. "Wait, do I have good ears?" Robin asked, "What about Kal?"

"Does this mean Connor has better looking ears than all of us?!" Wally exclaimed, but was shushed by Artemis so she could watch what was going on.

 _"Ok, Rob, now what?" Kid Flash asked, turning towards Robin, but Robin had disappeared._

Everyone except for Robin groaned at the trademark move.

 _"Man, I hate it when he does that!" Kid Flash complained, exasperated._

"Cause you've been doing it to me since we first met!" Wally exclaimed.

 _"Superboy, Kid, switch to infrared. See if you're being tracked." Aqualad ordered._

"Kaldur, you really kind of stepped into the leadership role from the beginning of the mission, even though you didn't mean to. It's just you're really good at it," M'gann observed, and Kaldur thanked her.

 _"Got a squad of armed bozos incoming." Kid Flash reported as his goggles revealed the squad._

 _"Two squads." Superboy corrected, seeing another. "But they'll meet each other before they find us."_

 _The sound of gunfire suddenly erupted; "No super hearing required now," Kid Flash commented._

 _"Swing wide, steer clear." Aqualad told them over the radio._

 _"Yeah yeah, just as soon as I find Rob." Kid Flash said, taking off down a dark path._

"Ah, no come on!" Artemis complained, "Things had been going so well!"

"Dude, you know you can't find me unless I want to be found and let you find me, right?" Robin asked Wally, who ignored him and said, "Instead of a 'Where's Waldo' book it should be "Where's Robin,' since you're so dang hard to keep track of.'

"And here's where things get interesting," Connor announced.

 _He ran for several seconds before tripping on a rock, and taking a hard fall down a decline; the sound of his fall caught the attention of Bane's men and the cultists, who stopped their fire-fight._

"You didn't see that coming?!" Artemis asked, bewildered.

 _Just in time for Kid Flash to drop right in front of Bane._

 _Looking at Bane with a 'I done screwed up' expression on his face Kid Flash observed, "So much for the stealthy,"_

"How eloquent of you," Robin dryly observed.

 _Kid Flash backflipped and fled as Bane and the others started firing at him. Superboy suddenly appeared, attacking Bane while Kid Flash dodged and fought the other henchmen._

Wally tossed a red gatorade to Kaldur, who cracked it open and drank some. This drew Artemis' line of sight back to the Disastrous Duo…

Robin and Wally had all of the snacks and drinks that Artemis had previously confiscated, and were bickering over who got the blue gatorade.

"When did you…? Oh nevermind." Artemis said.

 _Robin was suddenly dropping from the tree tops, landing and proceeding to take out several henchmen._

"Oh, NOW you decide to grace us with your presence. Wonderful," Wally sarcastically drawled.

 _"What is wrong with you guys?" Robin exclaimed, "Remember covert? Why didn't you follow my lead, vanish into the jungle?"_

"Way to clue everyone in," Artemis snickered. Robin simply facepalmed; they just weren't gonna let it lie, were they.

 _"That's what you were doing?" Kid Flash asked, as he knocked out another goon. "Way to fill us in. We're not mind readers, you know!"_

 _Kid Flash's attention was directed towards Miss Martian as knocked out a goon._

"Well the majority aren't," Connor said, smirking

 _"Er, I'm not anyway," he corrected._

 _"You told me I could only read the bad guys' minds." Miss Martian told them._

 _Robin noticed a cultist running away, and unsheathed a batarang to take him out, but Aqualad dropped down in front of the goon and did the Altantean version of tasering someone._

"Kal, you should totally cosplay pikachu!" Wally exclaimed.

 _The scene fast forwarded to the henchmen being tied up, and the team discussing the mission._

 _"I recognize those uniforms." Robin told them, "They belong to the cult of the Kobra."_

"What creeps." Robin added.

 _"I am certain Batman would have mentioned it If he knew a dangerous extremist was running Santa Prisca's Venom operation." Aqualad pointed out._

"I dunno, are you SURE he would have mentioned it?"

"Shut up Wally," Robin said.

 _"Agreed." Robin replied, "And since there's clearly no love lost Between the cultists and those goons, I'm betting Kobra came in and tossed them out."_

 _"That's why normal supply lines have been cut off."_

 _"We get it. Kobra wanted super cultists, mystery solved." Kid Flash said,"Radio Bats, and we'll be home in time -"_

"For what?" Robin asked, smirking, "Supper?"

 _"These cultists aren't on Venom!" Robin cut him off, "Kobra's hoarding the stuff. We don't leave. Not until I know why."_

"He's got a point," Artemis said.

"Until you know why?" Kid Flash challenged.

 _"This team needs a leader." Robin told him._

 _"And it's you?" the speedster scoffed,"Dude, you're a 13 year old kid, who ducked out on us without a word."_

"Before you were 13 you were 12 though. 12. That is kind of weird, I mean thats just…12. You make 13 seem so much older." Artemis commented.

 _Laughing at Kid Flash, Robin retorted, "And you're a mature 15? You blew our cover first chance you got!"_

"You're one to talk about maturity," Wally scoffed.

Artemis was laughing; "You guys are really getting in each other's faces!"

 _"Don't you want to lead?" Miss Martian asked Superboy, who shook his head no and asked her, "You?"_

 _Putting a hand up in a 'no thank you manner' Miss Martian said, "After the mister Twister fiasco?", clearing wanting nothing to do with leading._

 _"You did all right." Superboy told her, causing Miss Martian to blush._

"Awww how sweet," Robin cooed, and Connor threw a pillow at him.

 _Superboy's attention was suddenly drawn to Bane's henchmen, who's quiet tones could be picked up with superhearing._

 _"Look at them argue!" the henchman told Bane in Spanish, "Free yourself and take them while they're distracted!"_

"Take us where?" Wally asked, "He doesn't seem like the 'take your kid to the zoo' type."

 _"Quiet!" Bane ordered the goon, "For now I play along. They'll give me what I need."_

 _"Yeah? You don't even have super powers!" Kid Flash exclaimed to Robin; yes, the two had spent that entire time bickering._

Artemis burst out laughing. "That whole time you two had just been arguing like a couple of 6 year olds?!"

 _"Neither does Batman!" Robin indignantly told him,_

 _"Tch, you're not Batman." Kid Flash scoffed,_

 _"Tch, closest thing we've got!" Robin retorted._

"This is priceless," Artemis gloated, stealing a handful of Robin's pretzels.

 _Bane's laughter shut them both up. "Such clever ninos." Bane told them, "But you only know half the story. Let me show you the rest, get you into the factory via my secret entrance."_

"Oh ya, he's a real Samaritan," Wally scoffed.

 _"There is a secret entrance," Miss Martian said, focusing on reading Bane's mind, but he's also hiding something." Her eyes glowed as she tried to go deeper._

 _"Ah, ah, ah, chica. Bane is not that easy." he taunted._

 _Miss Martian stopped with a frustrated 'uh'. "He's mentally reciting futbol scores, en espanol," she told the team, "This could take a while."_

Everyone smiled in sympathy at M'gann, who was just shaking her head.

 _"It's not complicated. The enemy of my enemy is my friend." Bane explained. Robin gave Aqualad a look; the Atlantean nodded his head in affirmation._

"Awww thats cute!" Artemis said.

"What?" Wally asked, confused,

"How Robin looks up to Kaldur." Artemis stated.

"Robin looks up to everyone," Wally deadpanned, poking fun at his friend's height.

"I mean in a big brotherly way, moron!" Artemis exasperatedly told him, and M'gann just giggled.

 _The scene switched to the factory. "Sublime master, he approaches," one of cultist henchmen told Kobra._

"Don't feed his ego." Connor said.

 _" Activate the radio jamming net," Kobra replied, "Nothing must interfere."_

Everyone who'd been there groaned. That had really screwed them up.

 _Bane led the team to an overlook where they could view the factory and proceedings there. Using his binoculars, Robin watched the cultists as they hauled crates to the landing pad._

"Cool specs." Artemis complimented,

"Thanks, I designed them," Robin replied.

 _" Look at all that product." he said, "A buy is going down, but if Kobra's not selling to the usual suspects -"_

 _"We need to identify that buyer." Aqualad finished for him._

"Artemis is gonna love that part." Robin sarcastically mumbled under his breath.

 _"Just what I was thinking." Kid Flash agreed._

 _"Yeah!" Robin immediately replied, enjoying himself way too much as he insulted Kid Flash, "You're the thinker!"_

Everyone laughed at the jibe - Robin was such a smart ass to Wally, you could practically see the years of history and friendship between the two of them.

 _"Sarcasm? Dude. A real leader would focus on getting answers." Kid Flash told him._

"Sarcasm is Robin's middle name," M'gann said, exasperated.

"Actually, Danger was almost my middle name," Robin said under his breath.

"Seriously?" Wally whispered,

"Tell you later." Robin replied.

 _Bane moved a boulder out of the way, revealing a secret entrance. "Answers are this way," he told them, gesturing down the tunnel._

 _As everyone started down the tunnel, Kid Flash commented, "So, now el Luchador is our leader."_

"Sarcasm?" Robin scoffed, echoing Wally's own words from a few seconds ago.

 _Robin smacked him/shoved Kid Flash out of the way and he lead the way down the tunnel._

"Ah, lover's spats. Nothin like 'em." Artemis commented, bursting into laughter a moment later with M'gann. Robin shot her a filthy look, lethal even with shades on.

 _They reached the end of it, and Bane pressed a button that unlocked a secret door into the factory. Cracking the door a few inches, Bane peered out the top of it, while Robin peered out the bottom._

"Why is there something bizarrely funny about that?!" Wally exclaimed, laughing.

 _"All clear," Robin told them, heading into the factory. Everyone else followed suit._

 _A few moments later Bane noticed that Robin was nowhere to be seen._

 _" Has that little fool already been caught?" he exclaimed in a loud whisper._

"Oops, he, did it again - mmph" Wally sang, but was cut off when Robin shoved a pillow into the speedster's face.

 _"No - he just does that." Aqualad replied, sounding like a vexed parent._

Everyone laughed really hard at this, at how much Kaldur sounded like an exasperated, tired, dad who was just so done.

 _"Stay put," Kid Flash told them, "I'll get our intel and be back before the boy wonder!" and then he took off._

"This is just a mess," Artemis said, face palming.

 _"Wait, Kid!" Aqualad tried to protest, but Kid Flash payed him no attention and was already gone._

"You guys should listen to Kaldur more," Connor told Robin and Wally.

"We know," they said at the same time.

 _"Great chain of command." Bane growled to Miss Martian, Aqualad, and Superboy, who looked at each other with resigned expressions._

 _One floor above them, Robin was silently making his way into a computer room._

"Doing the ninja thang," Wally commented.

"Hey Wally, with you being a redhead, if you became a ninja would you technically be a 'ginga'?" Robin asked….they looked straight at each other for a moment before breaking into laughter.

 _A cultist was typing on a computer when suddenly, a batarang was imbedded in the computer frame next to him, and knock out gas ignited, rendering the guy unconscious in his chair._

"That guys is playing for the wrong team," Artemis said.

"What team?" Wally asked, and then he and Robin both shouted "WILDCATS!" at the top of their lungs.

 _Robin walked over, simply shoving the guy out of the seat, then sitting down in the now-vacant seat as he dove into the computer files._

Everyone cracked up at the complete disregard for the unconscious guy Robin shoved out of the chair without a second glance. Something about it was just funny.

 _The scene switched to Bane, Aqualad, Superboy, and Miss Martian, who were spying on the cultists' activity._

 _"It's a massive shipment." Aqualad observed in hushed tones._

 _"Yeah, but they're only taking new product off the line." Superboy pointed out, "They're not touching this Venom."_

 _"Maybe freshness counts?" Miss Martian asked skeptically._

 _"Helicopters coming." Superboy said._

"Oh boy." Wally breathed under his breath. Him and Robin shared a look, Artemis wasn't going to like the go-between for the buyer.

 _Things transitioned back to Robin on the computer, who was looking at a molecular structure of a compound. Kid Flash sped in to meet him._

 _"Whatcha got?" the Speedster asked, munching on a snack bar._

 _"Chemical formulas." Robin told him, and Kid Flash moved closer to the screen._

M'gann was the one to laugh this time at the two of them. When asked why she was laughing, she simply said, "It's funny how the rivalry just dropped when it came down to getting the job done, and how the comfortable casualness just took over. You guys can't stay mad at each other."

 _Robin continued. "I'm guessing it involves Venom, but - "_

 _"This one's Venom," Kid Flash cut him off, pointing to a red structure, "And that one's - whoa."_

"It pays off to have a science geek-boy along for the mission," Robin stated.

 _A blue molecular structure was shown on the screen, combining with venom…_

 _"The blockbuster formula from cadmus." Kid Flash finished._

"Good times," Wally deadpanned.

 _"Mixed correctly, Kobra's new juice is than Venom and permanent." the speedster said, reading the data off the screen."But how did Kobra get access to project blockbuster?"_

"No, question is how was anything even salvageable after that train wreck called the 'Cadmus incident?" Artemis asked, shaking her head.

 _"Our mystery buyer must also be Kobra's supplier!" Robin said, "Using the cult to create a blockbuster Venom super formula."_

 _He activated his commlink- "Robin to Aqualad, we got - static."_

"Great." Connor remarked.

 _The helicopter landed, opened up and revealed the buyer, who greeted his supplier._

"You have GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!" Artemis yelled; Robin and Wally had braced themselves by covering their ears. A string of curse words erupted out of Artemis's mouth, a mixture of English and Vietnamese, so it was questionable what was really said.

 _"Lord Kobra."_

 _"Sportsmaster." Kobra acknowledged. "The shipment is ready."_

Artemis was glowering at the screen, and everyone else was giving each other hesitant, unsure looks. Nobody said a word; it was a very awkward silence.

 _Shimmer presented a case of vials, and Sportsmaster took one out to inspect. "The new Kobra Venom?"_

 _"A complete success." Cobra confirmed, "Our friends will not be disappointed."_

 _"This is a gamechanger." Sportsmaster said, "Finally, we can go manoamano with the Justice League."_

"PLEASE tell me someone got a really good hit in, right in his face!" Artemis growled, still glaring at the screen.

 _Miss Martian, who was hovering above the conversation in camouflage mode, telepathically linked herself to Aqualad._

 _' Aqualad, sending you a telepathic image of the buyer now.' she told him._

 _Upon mentally viewing the image, Aqualad said, "Sportsmaster. He is the buyer?" and then activated his com._

 _"Aqualad to Red Tornado. Do you read?" but all he got was static._

"It's a shame we'd never be able to include Red in the minklink," Wally said, voicing a stray thought.

 _"Can't reach the League, Robin, or Kid. Comm's jammed." the Atlantean told Superboy, "We need a plan."_

"I have a plan!" Robin suggested,

"Is it a good one?" Wally challenged;

"I have a plan," Robin repeated in an almost threatening tone, narrowing his eyes at Wally behind his sunglasses.

 _"I have a suggestion," Bane spoke up, before jumping over the railing and going crazy attacking Kobra's cultist henchmen. Gunfire erupted, attracting the attention of Kobra, Sportsmaster, and the henchmen around them._

"What the frickety frack is he DOING?!" Artemis exclaimed, and Wally and Robin jumped too; they hadn't been there for this part.

 _"What is he -" Aqualad started to question, but a roar brought his attention to the window above, where the enormous silhouette of Mammoth was shown before the creature smashed through the glass._

"Holy crap!" Robin exclaimed - that like seeing the silhouette of the hulk coming at you before smashing through and…well, tearing the roof down.

 _"Destroy them!" Kobra, who made a quick appearance, ordered his men._

"How the heck did he get there so fast?" Connor asked.

 _Mammoth and Superboy charged each other, beginning their fight. Aqualad made a shield out of his water bearer, and used the other one to shoot mystic jets of water at the henchmen, effectively taking several out._

"Uh, Wally? Robin?" Artemis asked, "You guys could show up any time now!"

 _Bane, who was hidden behind a column, laughed the stereotypical villain laugh as he watched the young heroes' plight, then disappeared._

Using the gesture Robin had taught her, M'gann flipped her middle finger up at Bane's treachery.

Robin literally fell off the couch from laughter, Artemis couldn't breath because of it, Wally had tears of mirth in his eyes, even Connor was laughing, and Kaldur was just shaking his head in amusement and trying not to laugh.

 _Miss Martian swooped in in camouflage mode, helping Aqualad and Superboy with the fight, but she didn't go unnoticed by Sportsmaster._

"M'gann he sees you!" Artemis exclaimed, having caught her breath again. Wally was helping Robin get up from the floor.

 _As the fight kept going, he launched an exploding bo staff at Miss Martian; she barely got out of the way, but it's explosion knocked her out of the air, and out of camo mode._

Everyone winced or cringed for M'gann; that was a close call, and a rough hit.

Staring at the screen that showed what her dad had done to M'gann, all Artemis could do was quietly say, "Sorry."

Everyone reassured her that it wasn't her fault, with Wally using a Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker analogy.

 _Robin and Kid Flash graciously decided to show up at this point in the fight, but while Kid Flash went down to help his teammates, Robin smirked, then disappeared again._

"Finally you two showed up!" Artemis exclaimed, while M'gann nodded in agreement.

"Wait, where are you going, Robin!?" M'gann exclaimed. Connor sighed again.

 _Aqualad was backing up behind a large tank for cover, and Kid Flash had to take cover behind a steel support._

 _"Miss Martian, radio is jammed! Link us up!" Aqualad yelled as M'gann was getting her bearings from the fall she took._

"And we finally see sense," Connor said, and the other boys snorted.

 _'Everyone online?' she telepathically asked,_

 _'Yeah.' Superboy replied, sounding very aggravated._

The whole team, even Connor himself, laughed at his aggravation.

 _'You know it, beautiful.' Kid Flash flirted,_

"Ow!" Wally complained when Artemis punched him in the shoulder.

 _'Good.' Aqualad said, We need to regroup.'_

"But Robin…?" Artemis started to ask,

 _'Busy now!' Robin told all of them, and the scene switched to him landing by the helicopter._

"Ah, of course." Wally said, rolling his eyes. "First time ever with the mind link while everyone is under attack, and you're just, 'LOLz, sorry guys too busy ttyl, YOLO!'"

Robin just stared at him a moment, before saying, "I can't believe I just heard you say that."

 _"Batman must be desperate if he sends his whelp to task me." Kobra said, standing at the opposite end of the helicopter with Shimmer._

"Oh, ha. Ha. Very funny, ho ho, it is to laugh." Robin sarcastically drawled.

"You know sarcasm is the lowest form of wit," Wally told him.

"And that is a comeback for those who suck at them," Robin replied, not missing beat.

 _"What's wrong, Koby?" Robin quipped, "You look disconcerted."_

 _"This is beneath me." Kobra droned. "Shimmer, take him."_

 _Robin just just started dodging her attacks and was in a fighting stance when Aqualad ordered over the mindlink, 'Robin, now!'_

Kaldur laughed with the others; he really did sound like a scolding parent.

 _He threw a smoke bomb, cloaking his exit as he disappeared._

 _The scene switched to Aqualad fighting with his water bearers; 'Strategic retreat,' he said over the mindlink, 'Kid, clear a path.'_

 _Kid Flash cleared a path by knocking henchmen over like bowling pins; Aqualad, Robin, and Miss Martian followed behind him._

"How did you get there so fast?!" M'gann asked, bewildered.

 _They fought their way into Bane's secret access tunnel, where they locked the door behind them then fled towards the outdoor exit._

"Go!" Artemis rooted for them, getting caught up in the action.

 _Mammoth busted through the door, and cultists started firing at their retreating backs._

"Oh crap crap, go go go you guys!" Artemis practically yelled.

"We're trying!" Robin yelled back; she was getting way too into this.

 _"Superboy, the support beams!" Aqualad told him, and the clone destroyed them; the ceiling came falling down accordingly, separating them from their enemies._

"I came in like a wreeeeeckinnnng ball!" Wally started singing, but Robin tackled him, putting an end to that.

 _Aqualad cracked a red glowstick, illuminating the dark tunnel the team was taking a short reprieve in._

Kaldur gave Wally and Robin stern looks. They looked everywhere but at Kaldur, avoiding his gaze.

"I'm missing something here," Artemis said.

Picking at a loose thread on his pants, Robin took a long-suffering breath then said, " Wally and I took all of Kal's glowsticks and lit them up then threw them in the pool at 2 am when we were swimming so it'd look cool and now we have to replace them by Monday.

 _"How could my first mission as leader go so wrong?" Robin asked, facing away from his teammates._

"If you play this right, this could be a really melodramatic scene," Artemis told him.

 _"You do have the most experience." Aqualad said, "Perhaps that is exactly what has left you unprepared. Fighting alongside Batman, your roles are… defined."_

"That's one way of putting it," Wally said.

"You two do not need to talk." Aqualad continued, "But this team is new. And a leader must be clear, explicit. He cannot vanish and expect others to play parts in an unknown plan."

 _"Dude, you should be taking notes on this," Wally teased, and got elbowed for it._

 _Robin whipped around and exclaimed, "Oh, so I'm supposed to hold everyone's hands?!" in frustration, but then calmed down._

"Which is ironic, cause you're the youngest," Artemis pointed out.

 _"Who am I kidding," he said, "You should lead us, Kaldur. You're the only one who can."_

"Ah! The moment of truth!" Artemis exclaimed.

 _"Please! I can run circles -" Kid Flash tried to protest, but Robin cut him off with, "Wally, come on! You know he's the one. We all do."_

 _"Hello, M'gann! It's so obvious." Miss Martian agreed._

 _"Could have told you." Superboy told them._

 _Aqualad looked at Kid Flash, who shrugged, smiled and went, "Ok."_

Artemis pretended to wipe a tear from her eye. "This is so touching!"

 _"Then I accept the burden until you are ready to lift it from my shoulders." Aqualad told Robin, resting a hand on the younger hero's shoulder._

 _"You were born to lead this team maybe not now, but soon."_

 _Robin smiled, and nodded._

Looking between Kaldur and Robin, Artemis cooed, "Oh, you guys are having a moment!", causing M'gann to break out in giggles and for Connor to snort. Kaldur looked every bit the worn down parent, and gave Artemis a long suffering look.

 _"All right." Aqualad said, switched back into mission mode. "Our first priority is preventing that shipment from leaving this island."_

 _"Funny, I had the same thought." Robin replied, and the scene changed to Kobra and Shimmer by the helicopter…which wasn't starting._

Laughter wouldn't describe the team's reaction, it was more like…cackling. What would they do without their little troll?

 _"Sabotage." Sportsmaster stated. "Robin?" he asked._

"Yours Truly!" Robin smugly said, taking a bow.

 _"Undoubtedly." Kobra told him_

 _"Find the problem." he ordered Shimmer, "Fix it."_

 _Shimmer bowed and left to fix the problem._

 _"Master, shall we send search parties after the intruders?" a cultist asked Kobra._

 _"Don't be absurd. " Kobra said,_

 _"They'll come to us." Sportsmaster finished._

Scowling again, Artemis raised both of her middle fingers towards the screen showing her dad.

 _The screen showed the team making their way down the access tunnel. "Sportsmaster's the supplier/buyer, but it still doesn't track." Robin said, working on his wrist computer as he ran, "He doesn't have the juice to acquire the blockbuster formula or to get Kobra to do his dirty work."_

 _"And neither of them have the chops to bond blockbuster with Venom." Kid Flash added, "That took some major nerdage."_

"So Bill Nye the Science Guy wouldn't make the cut?" Robin asked.

Wally sorrowfully shook his head no.

 _As they reached the end of the tunnel, Aqualad stated, "I believe the expression, is tip of the iceberg."_

"Wait what?" Artemis asked, and Wally shushed her while gesturing to the screen.

 _Bane was blocking their exit, holding a detonator._

 _"Halt, ninos," he deadpanned. "I'm feeling, explosive."_

"That could be interpreted in a handful of different ways," Artemis pointed out, sniggering.

"Shhhh, I'm about to be awesome," Wally told her.

 _Above the teams' head were explosives that would go off at the press of a button._

"Aw sonnovabitch." Artemis said under her breath.

"You're telling me," Robin said, having heard her.

 _"You betrayed us! Why?" Aqualad exclaimed, stalling for time._

"Very smart," Robin observed out loud, "Keep 'im talking."

 _"I want my factory back." Bane replied, while Aqualad used the mind link to talk to Kid Flash - 'Kid, you'll need a running start!'_

 _"So I forced you into a situation where you would either take down my enemies or die trying." Bane continued, "If the latter, the Justice League would certainly have come To avenge their sidekicks. And when the smoke cleared, Santa Prisca would be mine once more. Blowing the tunnel with you inside should have the same effect."_

Everyone started laughing at Bane, while Artemis was telling Wally to hurry up.

 _Bane pressed down on the button to trigger the explosives, but….while he had been talking, Kid Flash has sped by and taken it out of his hand without Bane even seeing/realizing it._

A round of applause broke out for Kid Flash; that was a great grab.

"Swiper no swiping!" Robin told Wally to harass him.

 _"With what? This trigger thingy?" Wally asked, leaning casually against a tree and brandishing the control for the explosives._

"You're almost as smug as Robin!" Artemis exclaimed, facepalming.

"How is that a bad thing?!" Robin demanded to know.

 _Bane yelled and went to punch the speedster, but was jerked back my Miss Martian's telekenesis, and held in midair._

"WHoo!"

"Go M'gann!"

 _"Finally." Superboy said as he approached Bane from below. "Drop him."_

 _Miss Martian let go of her hold on Bane, who fell fight into Superboy's swinging fist._

"He's Soarin! Flying! There's not a star in heaven that Bane can't reach," Wally and Robin tried to sing, but were laughing so hard it was choppy.

 _The scene changed to the helicopter, which was running again._

 _"The helicopter is operational, exalted one," a cultist informed Kobra._

This elicited many eye rolls. Wally started bugging Robin about something, using the phrase 'exalted one'.

 _As Sportsmaster started towards the helicopter to leave, the cultists were suddenly under attack again by the team._

"Yes!" Artemis shouted, "Come on guys!"

"We are!" Wally exclaimed.

 _"Take the shipment!" Kobra ordered, so Sportsmaster hurried away._

 _Superboy landed on the platform, leaving cracked concrete below him. "Go again?" he invited Mammoth, who roared and charged…but was immobilized by a huge rush of water, thanks to Aqualad and his water bearers._

 _"Sorry." Superboy followed up, "Not the plan."_

A round of cheering went up for Connor and kaldur, which quickly turned to shouts of warning as they watched what happened next.

 _Sportsmaster started shooting Superboy with a gun that actually seemed to hurt him, while Miss Martian tried to get into the helicopter. However, Sportsmaster was able to stop her, and ended up with Miss Martian in a choke hold while still firing at Superboy._

"Guys, help them!" Artemis exclaimed, worried for her friends.

M'gann telepathically sent comforting thought and feelings to Artemis, who was wringing her hands.

 _Kid Flash was zipping around knocking out henchmen, and managed to grab the hood/mask of one. "Souvenir!" he exclaimed._

Everyone started cheering Wally again, although Robin was hollering scores for his performance.

 _Shimmer was suddenly taken down by Robin, which attracted the attention of Kobra._

"Uh oh," M'gann said,

 _"I know you hate getting your hands dirty." Robin told Kobra._

 _"True." he replied, taking his cloak off to reveal a completely bare, pale, and bald upper half of his body, "But sometimes, even a god must stoop to conquer."_

Cheers and words of encouragement erupted from everyone…

 _Robin went on the attack, but it was like trying to kick/punch a brick wall' he couldn't make a dent._

But they ended up in groans and desperate cheering as things favored Kobra.

 _As Kobra managed to kick Robin away, the hero landed gracefully and grit his teeth in determination._

 _"What's wrong, boy? You look disconcerted." Kobra taunted._

"Oh, bad luck man," Wally said, cringing.

 _Kid Flash was still knocking people over and out, while Aqualad continued to attack Mammoth, adding electricity to his stream of water, which knocked the beast out._

 _Sportsmaster was backing into the helicopter, still holding onto Miss Martian and firing at Superboy, who was trying to advance on him._

 _"Thanks for the workout, but I got to fly." he told the heroes, throwing M'gann into Superboy, which knocked them both into the ground._

"aw come on," Artemis muttered, ticked off, but everyone else seemed to be moaning, groaning and complaining for a different reason.

 _The helicopter took off, but Superboy and M'gann sat up, giving each other a look; M'gann held up the detonator they took from Bane and clicked it, which set off Bane's explosive that they'd planted on board the helicopter._

There was some clapping, but also some pouting as the team watched what went down.

 _Sportsmaster ejected with a parachute, while the flaming helicopter fell out of the sky, and into the factory with a huge fireball._

"Oh, so THATS why you guys are pouting," Artemis concluded, then started mumbling about 'covert recon only', Wally and Robin shot her a dirty look.

 _For a moment Bane was shown in the distance, tied up to a tree, with a look of rage on his face as he watched his factory go up in flames._

"HA!" Robin exclaimed, but was shushed by Wally.

 _The fight between Kobra and Robin was shown again, with Robin being thrown harshly to the ground, and Kobra using his foot to hold him down._

"Come on, Robin!" M'gann exclaimed, while Wally pointed out, "We are a second away from being there, it's okay!"

"I wouldn't define getting my butt kicked as 'okay'", Robin complained under his breath.

 _"I am plagued by mosquitoes!" Kobra exclaimed._

 _"Good, 'cause this mosquito's mighty concerted over your pain." Robin retorted, escaping from Kobra, and flipping through the air to stand by his teammates._

"Again with the word thing," Connor facepalmed, while the rest of the team gave Robin fondly exasperated looks.

 _Gazing at the odds between himself and the team, Kobra disappeared into the trees with the farewell words of, "Another time, then."_

 _Robin followed for a few steps, gazing into the underbrush, but it was too dark to see Kobra._

"Aw, shame." Artemis commented.

 _Turing back around to face the team and the flaming, smoking factory, Robin smiled. Walking towards Aqualad, he said, "We picked the right guy to lead."_

"But-" Artemis started, but was hushed by a look from Wally that said, 'you don't want to miss this'.

 _But his demeanor changed from 'sincere' to 'lol sorry bro' as Robin added,"Automatically making YOU, the right guy to explain this mess to Batman!", gesturing broadly to the flaming factory, and proceeding to double over in laughter._

 _Aqualad reflected for a moment on that statement._

"YOU LITTLE TROLL!" Artemis exclaimed,

"Below the belt, dude!" Wally yelled, punching Robin in the shoulder, but everyone couldn't help but laugh…

"Way to act your age," Connor observed, smirking while Artemis and Wally were still doubled over from laughter, Robin was looking sheepish, Kaldur was reflective, and M'gann was giggling.

 _The team was back at Mount Justice, with text on the screen saying, "Mount Justice, August 4, 01:06 EDT_

"Oh no!" Artemis exclaimed, knowing the team was going to be told off.

 _"A SIMPLE recon mission, observe, and report." Batman's harsh voice grilled the team, who were lined up soldier style in their civvies._

 _"You'll each receive a written evaluation detailing your MANY mistakes." the bat continued, ticked off. The team held their heads down in shame, embarrassment, and the bitterness of failure._

 _"Man, harsh." Artemis said sympathetically. Everyone else was cringing, wincing, or looking resolutely at the ceiling - getting told off by Batman was not something for the faint of heart, and while they had thick skin, it wasn't fun to revisit._

 _"Until then, good job." Batman said, surprising the teens. They all lifted their heads and looked at him in shock._

"Plot twist!" Wally shouted while Artemis looked dumbfounded, going, "Wait, what?!"

 _"No battle plan survives first contact with the enemy." Batman explained._

 _"How you adjust to the unforeseen is what determines success." he continued, walking away to leave, "And how you choose who leads determines character."_

 _Aqualad smiled down at Robin, who was smirking in satisfaction._

"Oh, then in that case, well done team!" Artemis exclaimed, and Wally and Robin took a bow.

 _The scene switched to something very interesting…._

 _"All I recovered is a single ampoule of Kobra Venom." Sportsmaster addressed the blurred silhouettes on screens all around him._

"Whoa whoa whoa, this is-" Wally started, but was hushed by everyone, as they stared avidly at the screen.

 _"Peutetre, the drug can be reverse engineered." A french accented voice spoke. "Mais, what of our young heroes?" it asked."First, Cadmus, then Mister Twister. Now, Santa Prisca."_

Not a sound was uttered from the teenagers as they watched this rare and dangerous insight.

 _"Once is happenstance." A deeper, scary, mysterious voice said, "Twice is coincidence. But 3 times is enemy action. And enemies of the Light must not stand."_

Nobody said anything for several moments as the screen went black.

"Great, so now what, we have a contract out on us?" Robin asked, breaking the tension.

"Huh?" M'gann asked,

"We're on a hit list," Wally simplified, and Artemis smacked him, saying, "We're not on a hit list you morons!"

"I am concerned about our mentors; surely some of them are wondering where we are at?" Kaldur pointed out,

"No, I got that covered for another 7 hours at least," Robin said, "Then we might have to start improvising. All I know, though, is that we need to keep watching it till they're over; its now or never."

* * *

Well, it was posted Sunday, just like I said it would be! (I'm on U.S. Pacific time, btw)

I really appreciate all the feedback! You guys are totally awesome and have been really supportive of this story!

Shoutout to cocopops1995! Can't tell you how much fun it's been reading your reviews! And I it was actually really funny, my email being blown up like that, so no worries, haha - and Sorry about causing you pain after you wisdom teeth surgery, lol!


	5. Chapter 5

Wally had a piece of paper and pencil, and was explaining something to Robin.

"If GH can stand for P as in Hiccough, OUGH stands for O as in Dough, PHTH stands for T as in Phthisis, EIGH stands for A as in Neighbour, TTE stands for T as in Gazette, EAU stands for O as in Plateau, then the right way to spell POTATO should be: GHOUGHPHTHEIGHTTEEAU."

Robin stared at this a minute, then took a pillow and smacked a laughing Wally with it for a good 30 seconds until M'gann said, "It's starting!"

 _The scene started with a bridge's structure partially falling apart, with the cables snapping, falling across the road, and a school bus trying to avoid them._

This was met with exclamations of shock and alarm from the whole team as the scene unfolded on the screen in front of them.  
"I know this!" Connor suddenly exclaimed, "It's before the Ivo mission!"

Robin suddenly went very quiet, and exchanged a wary look with Wally. This, however, went unnoticed by the others, who were watching the screen.

 _More semis and cars swerved and wrecked, before one hit the back of the school bus. It began tipping over the side of the bridge, and the camera panned to focus on a skyscraper with "WAYNE" written on the top._

Wally started choking on his drink, while Robin muttered an expletive so quietly that only Connor picked up on it.

"Why are we looking at a Wayne skyscraper?" M'gann asked. Connor shrugged, and Artemis and Kaldur didn't really think anything of it.

Wally, though, was frantically sending silent looks and gestures to Robin, who was clearly unnerved and hoping to dodge a bullet here.

 _A man in a business suit, Bruce Wayne himself, was watching out the window at the scene before him._

"Isn't that Bruce Wayne right there?"  
"Hey, it is!" Artemis observed, nonplussed.  
At this point Wally smothered his face with a pillow, and Robin suddenly exclaimed, "Hey guys, lets go stretch our legs, we've been in here for ages and my legs are all cramped up and before long Wally's gonna be bouncing off the walls from sitting so long and you know what this is getting kind of boring anyway lets go for a walk or a run for ten minutes maybe and kinda just loosen up cause I'm getting restless what about you so ya lets go like right now!"

Wally agreed with almost aggressive enthusiasm, while everyone else looked at them funny, then turned their attention to the screen.

 _Turning towards his desk, he tilted the head of a Shakespeare bust back to reveal a red button._

"Cool, press it!" Artemis exclaimed, finding the mystery behind this fun.  
"What do you think it does?" M'gann asked, excited.  
"Cliche." Connor grunted.  
"Press it!" Artemis and M'gann yelled.  
"Don't press it," Robin moaned under his breath,

 _Pressing it, a drawer opened, revealing a folded up suit of Batman._

Kaldur paused the video.

The sudden silence was deafening. Blaring. Thunderous, even.  
M'gann broke the silence by whispering cautiously, "Bruce Wayne is….Batman?"

Everyone's gaze was locked on Robin. Who gave a fake laugh and said, "Of COURSE he's not Batman, it's just -" but was cut off by Artemis, who's mind was working at a million miles a minute.

"It all makes sense, the money, the equipment, the motive for crime fighting cause his parents, the perfect cover, the ability to influence anyone or anything as one of the richest and therefore most powerful men in the world, and, and…." her eyes widened as she stared at Robin, "and YOU!" she shrieked the last part, "Richard Grayson, the circus orphan!"

Robin started slowly getting of the couch and distancing herself from her, while trying to come up with something to say but ended up stuttering, then mumbling, then deserting English altogether.

"Look Artemis," Wally bravely started, but she rounded on him and yelled, "And YOU! You've known the whole time! All the jokes and hints and puns you two make, and the -" she stopped, with a look of dawning realization, and whipped back around to face Robin, yelling again as she went, "WE'LL LAUGH ABOUT THIS SOMEDAY?!"

M'gann, Connor, and Kaldur had been sitting back with stunned expressions, watching Artemis, Robin, and Wally like a tennis match going back and forth.

"Bats is gonna kill us," Wally muttered to Robin, who he'd moved towards as Artemis had started getting really mad and shocked.  
"Not is she kills us first," Robin mumbled.  
"Gotta catch us to kill us," Wally pointed out, and with that they both took off.

It took Kaldur a while to get everything settled down again, in which M'gann and Connor took the time to actually look up Richard Grayson online. The search results were extensive, and they were able to keep busy while shouting, laughter, minor explosions, and Kaldur's reprimanding tones echoed in the Cave around them.

Eventually everyone was seated and civilized again, with Artemis brushing glitter out of her hair and giving the Disastrous Duo dirty looks.

"So…does this mean you still have to wear the sunglasses, um, Richard?" M'gann tentatively asked.  
Robin laughed. "You can call me Dick. But I'd rather leave them on right now, cause it'll just be awkward with you all staring at me. You'll need an adjustment period, and now's not a good time. Wally was bad enough when I first took my shades off. You know what he said?"  
"Dude, shut up," Wally muttered, embarrassed.  
"He goes-"  
"Dude, come on! Shut it!"  
"Lemme tell it! I take my shades off, and he ends up staring for like 30 seconds, direct eye contact (which isn't at all awkward), and then says, 'wow, you've got the deepest oceans in your eyes'," Robin told them, laughing at his best friend's embarrassment.  
"I just meant that they're really blue," Wally pouted.

"Anyway," Robin continued, "We're on a time table, remember? Artemis, stop looking me up on google and watch the screen."

 _Wayne's attention was again directed to the bridge when Superman arrived with a loud crack, and he flew to the bridge. Holding up the the bottom up to stop it from giving away more, Superman used his heat vision to weld the cracked metal beams back together._

"Get 'er done, Superman," Wally commented,  
"I can't believe you're Richard Grayson," Artemis numbly said, shock finally settling in.  
"Q and A later," Robin replied.  
"But how are we supposed to pay attention when we just discovered your identity?" Megan questioned, and Connor agreed.  
"This is why I left the shades on - keep watching guys. Once in a lifetime deal here, remember? Gotta get through the footage before the League intervenes?"

 _Superboy was suddenly shown, leaping onto the unstable bridge and rescuing the vehicles that were almost over the edge._

His arrival was met by applause and cheering from his teammates - it was nice to be appreciated.

 _Bruce Wayne was watching Superboy with high-tech binoculars when things switched back to Superboy, who was trying to rescue the bus, and kind of struggling to do it._

"It must be hooked on something," Wally observed. Connor's teammates kept shouting words of encouragement.

 _He fell backwards as the weight was suddenly gone - Superman was lifting the bus into the air, then back down onto safe, solid ground._

"Hey, you had that!" Artemis complained.

 _"I had that." Superboy said, approaching Superman._  
 _"I didn't want to take the chance." Superman replied. "As it is, your landing could have destabilized the entire bridge."_

"Oh." Wally breathed out. Superman did kind of have a point. "Well, not everyone's as light on their feet as twinkle toes over here," he continued, and getting punched in the shoulder by Robin.

 _"It didn't." the clone stated._  
 _"But it could have." Superman pointed out. "We don't yet know the limits of your powers."_

"Look at the kids in the bus - they must have been geeking out so hard," Wally pointed out, laughing.

 _"But maybe, you could, you know… help me figure that out." Superboy haltingly suggested._

"Seeing as how he's the only other Kryptonian around!" Robin agreed, shaking his head at Superman's hard-headedness.

 _"Batman's got that covered." Superman told him, shooting down the request for help._

Robin scoffed at this. "Right. Like he's got a manual for kryptonian clones. Really bringing your A game today, Supes."

 _"I know, but -" Superboy tried to explain, but was cut off when Superman answered his comm._

 _"Superman." the Kryptonian confirmed. "Wait, Arrow. Slow down."_  
 _"What's attacking? No, I'm definitely available." Superman continued, turning away from Superboy and his hurt expression._

"That last part was downright mean!" M'gann exclaimed, "He's definitely available?! What a brush off!"

 _"Coordinates? Acknowledged. On my way," Superman finished his radio conversation._

 _"Sorry… Superboy," he said, "Duty calls." Taking off, he answered another call on his com. Answering it, he said, "Already got the alert, Bruce."_

 _"I know, Clark. But we need to talk." Bruce replied, talking into phone as he watched from the Metropolis Wayne building._

"Oh, wow. He doesn't sound happy," Wally laughed, not wanting to be in Superman's shoes.

"No wonder you were so upset that day, Connor," M'gann sympathetically told him.

"So I guess he was on his way to help with Amazo," Robin observed.  
"Heh, good times." Wally commented.

 _The scene switched to Mount Justice, showing the words 'Mount Justice, August 3, 13:06 EDT' on the screen._

 _Kaldur had just lost a computerized air hockey game to Wally when the computer announced, "Recognized, Superboy B04."_

Robin and Wally started laughing at Kaldur's disgruntled look at losing.

"Act your age, twerps." Artemis told them, rolling her eyes.

 _"Hi, Superboy, how was Metropolis?" M'gann asked as the clone walked by all of his teammates, ignoring them._

"Now I get why we were getting the silent treatment," Wally noted.

Artemis snorted in amusement. "You guys just stood there and stared at him!"

 _Black Canary's voice was then heard; "Ready for training, everyone?" she asked, entering the room with Martian Manhunter._

 _"Black Canary! Uncle J'onn!" M'gann exclaimed, before rushing to give her uncle a hug._

 _"M'gann - I was in the neighborhood, so I thought I'd see how you were adjusting." Manhunter greeted, happy to see his niece._

 _"A few bumps..but I'm learning!" M'gann told him._

 _"That's all I can ask." her uncle warmly told her._

"That was very sweet but….very bad timing," Robin said, cringing. No wonder Connor had gone all rage-monster that day.

 _Observing the interaction between M'gann and her uncle, Superboy turned away to leave when Canary stated, "Stick around. Class is in session."_

"Short session, though." Robin recalled.

 _Moving to the center of the room, the computer activated the training platform, lighting up under Canary's feet._

 _"I consider it an honor to be your teacher." she told the team, "I'll throw a lot at you. Everything I've learned from my own mentors - " Canary was cut off with a sound of pain as she took her jacket off._

Everyone cringed for her.  
"She still kicks ass, though." Robin stated, smirking at Wally who punched him in the shoulder.

 _"And my own bruises." she finished. Her bandaged arm was clearly visible._

 _"What happened?" M'gann asked, concerned._

 _"The job." Canary told her in a business tone, tossing her jacket aside._

"That what happened to your arm, Rob?" Wally asked, giving his friend a penetrating look. A white bandage was just visible under Robin's sleeve.

Crossing his arms in from of him, Robin mumbled, "Something like that."

 _"Now, combat is about controlling conflict, putting the battle on your terms." she explained,"You should always be acting, never reacting. I'll need a sparring partner."_

Robin outright laughed at this, and even M'gann started giggling. Wally just cringed at the screen.

"Wonder if she planned that speech," Artemis commented.  
"Probably." Wally replied.  
"She did." Robin confirmed, looking at something on his phone.

 _"Right here!" Wally immediately volunteered, his hand shooting straight up._

"This is gonna be good," Artemis gloated, leaning forward in her seat.

 _"After this," Wally said, walking over to her and ditching his banana peel, "I'll show you my moves."_

Artemis facepalmed at this, shaking her head. "She's gonna cream you."

 _Canary smirked her 'Imma take you down hard rookie' smirk, then threw a punch, which Wally was able to block, but followed up with sweeping Wally's legs out from under him._

Wally groaned while everyone else either laughed, or applauded Canary.  
"Why does the universe hate me." Wally complained.  
Robin was still laughing; "You didn't even last two seconds!"

 _Wally landed hard on the ground; Kaldur, M'gann, and Robin jumped a bit at the impact, slightly startled looks on their faces._

 _"Hurts so good." Wally quipped, still lying on his back on the ground._

 _"Good block." Canary told him, helping Wally up, "But did anyone see what he did wrong?"_

 _"Ooh, ooh!" Robin quickly piped up enthusiastically, "He hit on teacher and got served?"_

"Smart ass," Wally grumbled while Artemis was crying from laughter.  
"I feel sorry for Black Canary." Kaldur commented, shaking his head in exasperation.  
"Ya, well, I feel sorry for me," Wally pouted, "A little sympathy wouldn't be amiss!"  
"Nah, you had that one coming. Do the words 'flour bomb' have any meaning to you?" Artemis countered.  
"Changing the 'S' symbol on my shirts from red to pink," Connor added,  
"And my glowsticks," Kaldur contributed.  
"Hey, Robin gets part of the blame for that one!" Wally protested, and gave his friend a pointed look.  
"Worth it," Robin muttered under his breath.

 _"Duude!" Wally directed towards Robin in a betrayed and 'don't embarrass me any more' tone._

"Traitor." Wally accused Robin, narrowing his eyes at him.

 _"He allowed me to dictate the terms of -" Canary began, but was cut off as Superboy scoffed, "Oh, please. With my powers, the battle's always on my terms. I'm a living weapon, and this is a waste of my time."_

Artemis laughed nervously then went, "Oh boy."

 _"Prove it." Canary insisted, with a challenging look in her eyes._

Connor crossed his arms, grumpy and embarrassed at the scene about to happen.  
"It's alright Connor, she's pounded all of us into the ground and left us with only enough feeling in our body for embarrassment," Robin tried to comfort.

 _Superboy walked onto the training platform; they both set their faces in determined expressions, then got into a fighting stance. Superboy threw the first punch, and Canary grabbed his arm, flipping him over her head and onto the ground._

"Oh!" "Oooh!" "Ow!" and pained laughter echoed throughout the group as they watched the fight.

 _Robin started pointing and laughing as Superboy's fail; Kaldur nudged him with his elbow, giving him an 'act your age' look. Well, one might suppose that that in itself is the problem._

"Oh, very mature Robin. Very mature," Artemis scoffed, rolling her eyes.  
"Such a twerp," Wally laughed, "Thank goodness Kal is around to keep you in line."

 _So Robin covered his mouth with his gloves to muffle his laughter._

Laughing again, Robin tried to sincerely apologize; "Sorry Connor, I wasn't laughing at you, I was laughing with you!"  
Kaldur snorted. "He was not at all laughing."  
Robin waved his comment away, saying, "Beside the point."

 _Superboy got back up, growling and infuriated as he faced Canary again._

 _"You're angry. Good, but don't react." She told him, "Channel that anger into -" but she cut cut off as Superboy growled and charged at her; flipping over him, she was able to sweep his legs out from underneath him from her low vantage point. Superboy fell hard on his back again, with the computer showing 'FAIL' once more._

"Aw man, tough luck!" Artemis sympathized.  
"Don't worry man, we've all been there," Wally added.  
"Yep; lying on the cold hard ground," Robin concluded, nodding knowingly.  
Wally gave him a look. "Dude."  
"Hey Wally, you still listen to the radio when in the shower?"  
"Shut up."

 _Everyone spectating looked on with wariness and sympathy, wincing at the takedown. Well, everyone except Robin._

 _Who was clamping his hands over his mouth again to stifle laughter. How mature of him._

Artemis threw a pillow at the 13 year old.

 _"That's it! I'm done." Superboy told Black Canary, who put her hand on his shoulder and told him,"Training is mandatory."_

 _He shook her off, but any retort was cut off by a transmission from Batman._

"Well that was excellent timing," M'gann noticed.  
"Well ya, he's Batman," Wally replied.

 _"Batman to the cave," he said as soon as the screen appeared. He didn't bother to exchange pleasantries, and got right down to business._

 _"Five hours ago, a new menace attacked Green Arrow and Black Canary. The attacker was capable of studying, then duplicating the powers and abilities of its opponents. Arrow called in reinforcements, which nearly proved disastrous, as our foe gained more and more power with each new combatant."_

"Holy crap," Artemis breathed out, shocked at hearing the actual briefing.

 _"Whoa. One guy with the powers of the entire League?" Wally said, while everyone including himself looked shocked and in awe._

 _"In the end, it took 8 leaguers to defeat and dismantle the android." Batman told them._

"Wait, and you guys took in down yourselves in less than an hour!" M'gann exclaimed, looking at Robin, Wally, and Connor.

"Artemis helped too," Robin pointed out.

 _"An android?" Robin asked,"Who made it, T. O. Morrow?"_

 _"Good guess, Robin." Batman said, looking at him directly from the screen, "But Red Tornado doesn't think so."_

"You can actually notice his voice get slightly softer when he addresses Robin…" Wally suddenly noticed, sniggering. The kid had Batman wrapped around his finger.

 _"The technology bears the signature of…Professor Ivo." Martian Manhunter told them._

 _"Ivo? But Ivo's dead." Aqualad said._

 _"So we all thought - or hoped." Canary replied, turning to glance at Aqualad._

Artemis sighed, and addressed Connor and M'gann. "It sucks to be new, out of the loop, and therefore not knowing exactly what everyone's talking about."

 _"To make certain this threat is permanently neutralized, we're sending two trucks carrying the android's parts, to two separate S.T.A.R. lab facilities in Boston And New York for immediate evaluation." Batman continued again._  
 _"Every precaution is being taken. We'll have 4 additional decoy trucks to create confusion In case Ivo or anyone tries to recover the remains. You will split into undercover teams to safeguard the two real trucks."_

 _"Yes! Road trip." Wally happily exclaimed._

"It was a pretty cool trip," Wally pointed out.  
"I particularly enjoyed the peace and tranquility of it," Robin said.  
"Ya, very relaxing." Wally sarcastically agreed. "Totally relaxing."  
"Completely relaxing."  
"Would you two shut up?"

 _"So now we take out your trash?" Superboy asked, still angry._

 _"You had something better to do?" Batman countered, and Superboy backed down. Well, you'd have to be more than a Kryptonian to backtalk The Batman._

"Actually, I didn't." Connor recalled.  
"Well, you could have spent the time brooding," Wally offered,  
"No, he was doing that the whole trip anyway," Robin negated. Connor launched a pillow at his chest, which knocked the wind out of him and resulted in general laughter all around.

 _"Coordinates received." Aqualad confirmed, "On our way."_  
 _And with that, the team ran to leave. Canary held Superboy back; "When you're ready, I'll be here," she told him._

"Well thats nice." Wally said.

 _'Litchfield County August 3 20:08 EDT went across the screen as 6 cargo trucks were zoomed in on from a distance. The Amazo android was in pieces, being crated and loaded while armed guard and members of the League stood watch. Superman, who was part of the guard, looked through the underbrush a little ways away, in which the team was taking cover behind until the trucks were ready to go._

 _Superboy seemed to notice this, and looked right back at him, but Superman turned away as soon as they made eye contact._

"Awkward…" Wally noted.  
"I don't understand the logic of ignoring the thing thats right in front of your face, as if by not acknowledging it, it'll go away," Robin said, "Roy tries it all the time but it still doesn't make us disappear off his couch."  
Wally snorted in amusement at this; well, it was true.

 _The trucks closed their doors, and the drivers reported, "S.T.A.R. Boston is a go. "S.T.A.R. Manhattan is go."_

"They sound so badass, but sure freaked when the demon monkeys attacked," Wally said.

 _Batman signaled for the trucks to take off, and as they did, the team split into two squads and followed behind them on motorcycles._

"Now, M'gann, Connor; you guys had some training on riding the motorcycles beforehand, right?" Artemis asked.

"Technically." Megan offered as a meager answer. She and Connor shared a look. Artemis facepalmed.

 _The League members who had been overseeing the safe take-off of the android started taking off, but before Superman could leave, Batman put a hand on his shoulder and said, "I told you, we need to talk."_

"Man, thats one of those phrases that gets your mind racing, and subsequently your heart. Makes you think of every single thing you've done that day, week, month…" Wally shuddered.

"Especially when it's Batman saying it," Robin snickered.

 _The progress of Aqualad's, Kid Flash's, and Miss Martian's squad following the trucks was shown, as well as the progress of Robin and Superboy's smaller squad. It was a beautiful drive._

"Well it's a nice route," Artemis observed.  
"Ya, the highlight of that mission for me was the scenery," Robin smarted off, "I made a scrapbook and everything."  
"I didn't know you did scrapbooking," Wally sarcastically played along.  
"Only on my days off."

 _Coming up alongside Superboy, Robin started conversation. "If dislike is the opposite of like, is disaster the opposite of aster?" he asked, "See, instead of things going wrong, they go right!"_

"Ah. so thats where that one came from," Wally noted.  
"Actually, and Aster is a flower," Artemis told them, talking around a snicker bar.  
Robin leaned his head back and threw his hands up in exasperation; "I KNOW it's a flower, I've been informed of this 150 times already, why does everyone feel the need to relay this information to me!"

Wally snickered at Artemis' shocked expression at this outburst. "O….kay then."

 _Superboy didn't answer, and stared broodingly ahead, ignoring Robin._

"Guess the whole 'ignore it and it will disappear thing' is genetic," Wally said. Connor launched a pillow his way.

"Kidding…I was kidding," the speedster backtracked breathlessly.

 _"Uh, clearly you're not feeling the aster." Robin noticed, "What's wrong?"_

"So would 'not feeling the aster' translate to 'not feeling the flower power'?" Wally innocently asked. He grunted as he got an elbow to the kidney.

 _"Canary." Superboy confided, "I mean what business does she have teaching combat skills, to a guy with super strength?"_

"At least you're opening up," M'gann pointed out.  
"To the right guy, too. Only person better to get advice about the hero gig from is Kaldur," Wally added.

 _"Taking down stronger guys is part of the gig," Robin explained, "Canary learned that the hard way. Same with Batman and, well, me."_

"Ya, just look at the last mission."  
"Shut up Artemis."

 _Instead of replying, Superboy accelerated ahead of and away from Robin._

"Sorry," Connor told Robin.  
"It's fine dude," he reassured.

 _Aqualad's squad was then shown._

" _Do you think Superboy's ok?" M'gann asked, "I wasn't reading his mind, I swear, but anger flowed off him in waves."_  
 _"Surfed that wave." Wally replied, unconcerned, "Just give him space. Me? Stick as close as you want," he finished, moving his bike closer to hers as he flirted. M'gann had an 'I am not impressed' expression on her face._

"You look so done, M'gann," Artemis laughed.  
"I bet yoga would help with the anger management thing," Robin off-handedly commented. Connor glared at him.

 _"Superboy just needs time to cool off." Aqualad reasoned, "A quiet mission will clear his head."_

"Aw, ya jinxed it, Kal!"  
"Ha! No such thing with this crew!"  
"That level of optimism is unrealistic,"  
"Quiet…mission? Does not compute."

 _No sooner had Aqualad finished saying this when green, crazy, creepy, laughing robot monkeys erupted out of the cornfields near the highway the team was traveling on._

Connor's jaw clenched visibly, which was kinda hot, but still a warning sign. Megan put her hand on top of his and leaned further into his side.

"I don't know what are worse, those or the ones from the Wizard of Oz," Wally said.  
"Wouldn't know," Robin stated while cherry-picking the jelly beans.

 _They proceeded to cling to the truck like leeches._  
 _"Robin, Superboy, our truck is under attack." Aqualad radioed._  
 _"Kinda figured." Robin replied, and it was shown that their truck had monkeys all over it too._

"I love how you are so chill about it," Wally laughed, shaking his head at the almost non-concern Robin had.  
"I hate these things already," Artemis commented.  
"Just wait till the laughter is stuck in your head," Wally told her.

 _"I hate monkeys." Superboy then said, dead serious._

"Now that, I believe." Robin said.

 _The robot cretins were banging against the windshield, freaking out the driver who started to swerve to try and fling them off the truck._

"What happened to the badass demeanor?" Wally asked, laughing.  
"Well that is an uncomfortable situation," M'gann pointed out.  
"Ya, I doubt they cover that in driver's ed," Robin agreed.

 _"Robot monkeys! Haha! Totally Ivo's tweaked style." Robin exclaimed._

"You're enjoying this too much," Artemis noticed, giving Robin a scrutinizing look.

 _Pressing a button on his bike, the back end detached, and it transformed into a small weaponized robotic aircraft that fired at the monkeys._

"Wait," Wally realized, "Why were you the ONLY person to do that?!"  
"That is a great question," Robin replied, rolling his eyes behind his sunglasses.

 _"Hey, hey!" Robin said to Superboy, sounding like he was enjoying this too much, "Switch your ride to battle mode!"_

"What is this, some arcade game to you?" Artemis huffed,  
"Pfft, no! You gotta pay for arcade games," Robin said, smirking at her.

 _"No point," Superboy replied, jumping straight off his motorcycle and onto the top of the truck, immediately attacking the monkeys._

"Bad idea bad idea bad idea!" Wally chanted; he knew how this particular move would end for his best pal.  
Connor facepalmed; "Sorry, Robin," he said, his voice muffled under his hand.

 _Superboy's abandoned bike going at who knows how many miles per hour started to crash and spin…Right into the path of Robin, who followed up with exclaiming, "Or not!" before he leapt off of his motorcycle, shooting a grappling line onto the back of the truck so he could pull himself onto it. The two riderless bikes behind him crashed as he started attacking the robot monkeys._

"Sweet," Wally approved.  
"I am, aren't I," Robin agreed.  
"Well, when you're not all 'break you face is you get crossways',"Wally replied. Robin rolled his eyes behind his shades.  
"Dont roll your eyes at me, I saw the concrete wall in the gym!" Wally retorted,  
"What happened to the wall?" M'gann asked.  
"Not here, I meant at his place," Wally told her.

 _Using their laser eyes, the monkeys were using them to cut through the metal of the truck. Superboy and Robin kept up their defense of the truck, while the small weaponized robotic aircraft was assaulted and taken down by the monkeys._

"It's amazing how soon you can lose the upper hand in a fight," Robin complained.  
"Or your partner," M'gann teased, good-naturedly elbowing Connor. He just sighed.

 _One of the little green robotic creeps managed to shoot it's lasers into Superboy's eyes; he yelled in pain, and while unable to see, 4 monkeys lifted him off the truck, carrying him high into the air before dropping him; he landed hard on the pavement._

Cries of "Oh, Con!"  
"Sorry man!"  
"That's terrible!"  
"Were you alright?"  
"Thats really rough," sounded across the room, in sympathy for Connor.

 _Superboy's eyes were red and irritated, his vision blurred as the truck moved away from him. Closing his eyes, he used his superhearing to clearly pick up on the monkey's laughter, fueling his rage even more._

"This is turning disastrous really fast," M'gann noticed; and they weren't even onto the second team's attack yet.  
"Imagine the damage that would have done to a non-kryptonian," Artemis said, cringing at the thought.

 _Kicking off the pavement, he took a giant leap into the air towards the truck. However, it was then that the scene switched to the other truck, where Aqualad was using his water bearers to knock off the monkeys, and Miss Martian and Kid Flash ditched their motorcycles for flying and running._

"The bikes are always broken," Wally morosely said with a sigh.  
"Well good thing Connor and M'gann are so committed to fixing them," Robin innocently commented. Kaldur coughed to cover up his laugh, while Connor glared at Robin, who remained overly-innocent looking. It seemed as though only Kal and Robin were in on the joke.

 _The flying, laughing monkeys were all over the windshield, freaking then driver out and blocking his view. "Somebody, help!" he exclaimed._

"It would make more sense to say that into a radio," Wally pointed out.  
"Let's see you drive with those cackling little green beasts on your windshield," Artemis replied.  
"But the drivers still could have used the radio," Robin said.

 _On top of the truck, the monkey had cut the metal roof and peeled it back; guards fired at them, but to no effect as they dived in to where the cargo was being held._

Robin was once again muttering the 'who what where when and how's' about the cameras that captured all this footage…  
"It's very strange seeing the mission from this perspective," M'gann noticed.

 _Miss Martian and Kid Flash were destroying and knocking monkeys off the truck, and Aqualad was doing the same with both his water bearers, riding his bike handless._

"Look Ma, no hands!" Robin exclaimed while everyone got really loud and enthusiastic, really impressed by Kaldur's moves; now that was awesome.

 _Kid Flash managed to flip on top of the truck, while M'gann had used her shapeshifting to sprout a bunch of arms, which she used to knock off more monkeys._

"Its so cool actually being able to see ourselves do all this," Wally said, "I mean, tell me that all of this doesn't look total badass."

 _"Yeaahhoh!" Wally exclaimed in shock and surprise at seeing her._

"Oh ya, real badass," Robin laughed.

 _She did the same, and put her extra arms away. Not a second later they were under siege again, while inside the truck, the monkeys burned a huge hole through the back of it, then took off flying with their half of the Amazo android._

Wally, M'gann, and Kaldur all groaned.  
"Crap," Artemis offered as condolences.

 _Aqualad screeched to a stop, taking off his helmet and watching as the monkeys left with the dangerous cargo._

"We know the feeling," Robin and Wally said at the same time.  
"It sucks," Wally added. Kal just sighed.

 _The scene cut back to Robin, who was still battling the monkeys on the back of the truck; climbing to the top, he took out two eskrima sticks. Spinning them rapidly in a brief warmup, he charged the monkey robots, taking out all of them in his path. More jumped up, but Superboy did too at that moment, tearing them off._

Impressed sounds emitted from everyone present.  
"You guys sure are doing better than us," M'gann noticed.  
"So far…" Connor trailed off, sighing.  
"Nice moves," Wally complimented.  
"It was a little bit sexy," Robin had said to the speedster; he'd been trying to goad Wally into admitting it since Robin's awesome moves were shown on screen.  
"Fine." Wally reluctantly, exasperatedly agreed, "It was sorta kinda sexy."  
Artemis gave M'gann a 'can you believe these two' look.

 _Two of the accursed robotic beasts went and blew the tires with their laser vision, causing to truck to swerve out of control._

"no No NO," Artemis exclaimed,  
"Not the tirrrres," Wally moaned; failure is painful to watch.  
"What a disaster," M'gann said in a huff of breath.

 _"Get - out!" Robin told the driver through the windshield, and when the driver opened the door, Robin took hold of him and flung both of them away from the truck, into the cornfield._

"Do you have any idea how much it hurts to be flung into stalks of corn at that speed? It's enough to break your ribs," Robin complained, rubbing at the phantom pains in his torso.

"It's gonna roll!" Artemis yelled in alarm,

 _The truck started barrel rolling , with Superboy and the monkeys on/in it. When it stopped, there was an explosion, and through the big hole created, the monkeys flew off with their half of the Amazo android._

Exclamations of "Whoa!" "Oh!" "Wow!" "Shoot!" and "ohmygosh!" sounded throughout the room at the wreck,  
"Were you guys okay?!" Megan anxiously asked,

 _Supporting the driver, Robin walked out of the cornfield and set him on the ground._

"Well, there's one okay," Artemis said, watching the screen intensely,

 _The truck tipped over again; Superboy had been underneath it, and pushed it off. He watched the monkeys fly away through blurry vision, their mind-raking laughter ringing in his ears. Gritting his teeth in anger, he took off in giant leaps after the monkeys._

"So both of you are okay," M'gann continued, relieved.  
"Sorry for taking off," Connor said to Robin again.  
"Dude, you don't have to keep apologizing."  
"Did your eyes heal?" Kaldur asked Connor, who nodded yes.

 _"Superboy!" Robin yelled, but Superboy payed no mind._

 _"Aqualad to Robin, we lost our cargo." Aqualad radioed, at that moment. "Did you -"_  
 _"It's gone." Robin replied, frustrated and exasperated. "And so is my partner," he continued, watching as Superboy's figure got smaller in the distance._

"You look like an abandoned puppy," Wally teased.  
Elbowing him, Robin replied, "Watch it, I bite."  
"Get a room," Artemis hooted.  
"I - not like that!" Robin huffed, scowling at her.

 _The scene switched to Superboy following the monkeys._

 _"Kaldur to Superboy. Radio your position. We'll help you."_  
 _"I don't need help - don't want any!" Superboy exclaimed, taking his radio piece out of his ear and throwing it on the ground._

"Don't give into hate - that leads to the dark side," Wally advised Connor, who rolled his eyes. Robin and Wally had shown him Star Wars last month. And okay, ya, he wanted a lightsaber. Shut up.

 _"Superboy?" Aqualad asked again._

 _The scene switched to Aqualad, Miss Martian, and Kid Flash._

"Man, none of you guys are doing so hot," Artemis noticed.  
"Well we weren't exactly feeling the aster," M'gann said.  
Robin shot Wally a smug, victorious look.

" _I think he ditched his com." Robin said over the radio._

 _"Su-per. Now we can't even track him." Kid Flash exclaimed._

"Very clever pun, Wally." Artemis sarcastically drawled.  
"Hey, I was frustrated."  
"Clearly."

 _"He's out of my telepathic range." Miss Martian told Aqualad._

 _"This professor Ivo, if he is alive, seems to be two steps ahead of us." she stated. "Mmaybe…wwe should contact Red Tornado?"_

"It's like going 'MOM!' Ivo took my android!' 'Well did you take it from him first?'," Robin joked.  
"Man, how embarrassing it would have been to have to say, 'Um, hey sorry but we lost the deadly superpowered android parts you sent us to protect after 8 of you guys spent the whole day fighting it," Wally said, cringing at the thought.

 _"Tornado always tells us to handle things ourselves. And the mission can still succeed if we recover the parts before they're reassembled." Aqualad told her._

Everyone just laughed.  
"Ya, we nailed that part too," Wally scoffed.  
"Such a disaster," M'gann moaned.

 _"Well, that's a great plan, except for the part about us not knowing where to look!" Wally countered._

"You were obviously having a bad day, weren't you," Artemis said, sympathetic yet still laughing.  
"Who wasn't?"

 _"Maybe we do." Robin told them over the radio, and the scene switched back to him, pulling out a wire from his wrist computer and plugging it into a monkey._

"I honestly don't know what this team would do without Robin," Artemis commented.

 _"We'd have heard by now if the decoy trucks had been attacked. So how did these monkeys know exactly which trucks to target?" he said, while typing on his computer._

"Well those were the only trucks with escorts," M'gann pointed out,

 _As a screen pulled up, he exclaimed, "Ha! The parts have gps! The monkeys can track the signal, which means I can track them with the one I captured." Robin announced, pulling up a map showing the two sets of moving android parts._

"Nice," Artemis complimented.  
"Wasn't it kinda just lying there dead?" Wally pointed out.  
"It was in my custody, therefore I captured it," Robin retorted.

 _"It looks both sets of parts are converging on…" Robin suddenly had the look of someone hearing a family member is in the hospital, as he said, "Gotham city."_

Artemis snorted. "Hit a little close to home, Grayson?" she asked Robin pointedly.  
"I'm never gonna hear the end of this," Robin moaned.

 _Things switched back to Aqualad's squad for a moment as Aqualad said, "That far south? M'gann and I won't get there anytime soon. I'm sending Kid on ahead to meet you. Aqualad out."_  
 _Putting his goggles on, Kid Flash took off, heading south._

"I feel a little better now that you're going to rendezvous," Artemis said, "but this still ends messy."

 _Things switched back to Robin again, who was holding the captured monkey. Pushing a button on his wrist computer, he automated his crashed motor bike, which righted itself and drove to Robin's stranded position several miles away._

"Is he like the only one who knows all these features for the bikes!?" Wally exclaimed, irritated.  
"Well I did help design them," Robin remarked.

 _"Definitely a disaster," Robin said to himself, as smoke billowed out of the truck behind him, "Heavy on the 'dis'."_

"Your mind works in very weird ways," Wally said.  
"Ha! I'm not the one who's swallowed a penny here, moron," Robin replied indignantly.  
"Nooo, just fire," Wally said under his breath. Robin smacked him.  
"Ow."

 _The scene switched unexpectedly to Bibbo's Diner. The screen had 'Metropolis August 3, 21:18 EDT go across the screen._

Confused exclamations of

"Wait, what?"  
"Why is this shown?"

"Alright, which one of you stopped at Bibbos?!"  
"This isn't part of the mission,"  
"Why….?"  
But what was shown on the screen next shut everyone up. Only Robin uttered a small, "oh."

 _Facing each other on different sides of a booth, two men in business suits took their order._

"Is this really….?" Artemis skeptically trailed off, watching the men on screen.

 _"Apple pie," the one in glasses said to their waiter. The other man had a menu obscuring his face, but closed it and requested, "The devil's food."_

"NO WAY," Artemis shouted,  
"That's Batman!" M'gann squeaked, "And…Superman?"  
"They look normal!"  
"What are they doing?"  
"Well ordering dessert, obviously."  
"Would it kill you to not be a smartass for like, 2 seconds?"  
"Probably."

 _"Something tells me this isn't about dessert," Clark said warily._

"Naw, Batman takes the Leaguers out for dessert every other Wednesday!"  
"Really?"  
"I was kidding."

 _"The boy needs you," Bruce stated._

Connor looked down, embarrassed. He appreciated Batman actually caring.  
"At least Batman's looking out for Connor," Artemis commented.  
"Us too!" Wally and Robin exclaimed, turning to Connor for confirmation. He just sighed and agreed. He wasn't sure if being taught to unicycle counted as being 'looked out for'. Guess it was just Robin and Wally's way of showing affection….and laughing at his expense.

 _"No - he…needs, you. He needs Red," Clark countered, "I'm just a constant reminder of what he's not."_

"Connor was trying to reach out earlier that day! How could Superman say that?!" Megan exclaimed,  
"Somebody's in deniiiiial," Wally and Robin said at the same time.

 _"Sorry, Clark, but you're dead wrong." Bruce told him, and they just looked at each other for a second._

"Thats an…interesting choice of words," Artemis snickered.

 _"Look, I know he… troubles you, but he's here," Bruce continued, "You have to get over the how and why."_

"That is a very wise outlook," Kaldur observed in agreement.  
"Who woulda thought Batman a better parent than Superman!?" Artemis said in disbelief.

 _Giving Clark a harder stare, Bruce said, "Trust me on this. This boy needs his father."_

"Ooh - bad choice of words," Wally said, wincing,  
"And just when he was getting Superman to listen!" M'gann agreed.

 _"I'm not his father," Clark replied, standing up to leave, then addressed the waiter behind the counter as he said, "I'll take that pie to go."_

Robin was tsking Superman. "Running away from the problem, very mature."  
"Okay don't kill me for saying this, but it kinda looks like he just ditched Batman. I mean Bruce Wayne." Artemis said, laughing a little bit.

 _The scene switched to the flying, laughing monkeys carrying their crates of android parts to a train on the outskirts of the city._

"Oh, so the Gilmore Girls scene is over?" Wally asked.  
"You watch Gilmore girls?" Artemis immediately inquired, her head whipping around to stare at Wally.  
"N-no, of course not!" he retorted, while Robin fought to keep a straight face.

 _The door to one of the cargo cars was opened by robot monkeys, and the ones carrying the cargo entered it, the doors sliding shut behind them._

"What a dramatic change in tone," M'gann noticed.  
"Ya. And its also frustrating, I mean, we know what happened, but seeing everything from everyone's point of view as the whole thing played out is super weird, and still frustrating cause we know the end result anyway and cant change it," Wally noted.

 _Superboy was only a few leaps behind, and landed on the train car. Ripping a hole into the metal roof, he dropped into the train car; at the furthest end of it was a short, redheaded man surrounded by the green robotic spawns of satan._

 _"Oh. hello," the man greeted in an irritating voice._

"Oh hell no." Artemis stated.

 _"You? You're Ivo?" Superboy asked, unimpressed. "I'm whelmed."_

Robin slapped Wally in excitement, at Connor using the word. M'gann laughed and squeezed Connor's arm.

 _"You're one to talk," the professor replied, "Now, since when does the big blue boy scout have a brat?"_

"It's complicated." Wally said.

 _"He doesn't!" Superboy retorted._

 _"Yeah, if you say so," Ivo conceded, uninterested in the topic._

"It's hilarious how he shrugs it off. He's probably like, 'eh - teenagers'." Artemis laughed.

 _"Have you met my Mobile Optimal Neural Quotient Infiltrators?" Ivo asked, referring to the monkeys as they attacked Superboy._

"Destroy them!"  
"Superboy smash!"  
"No mercy!"

 _He destroyed them in short order, to Ivo's disappointment._

 _"Ah. And after all the trouble I went through finding an acronym for MONQI."_

"Well that's pretty desperate." Robin stated, "He must have wanted the abbreviations for 'MONQI' as much as Peggy wanted the abbreviations for 'SHIELD'."  
"We're not supposed to talk about that." Wally reminded him.  
"What? Who now?" Artemis asked.  
"Nothing. It's just relevant to someone who had a date."  
"Huh?"  
"Shh."

 _"Access Captain Atom," a robotic voiced droned, and Superboy was hit by a laser-like beam of light, sending him to the ground._

Everyone exclaimed and cringed in sympathy for Connor.

 _"Since professor Ivo's magnificent MONQIS don't float your boat, maybe my amazing Amazo will better suit you - or better slay you," Ivo gloated, as his large, red-eyed, intimidating, fully-superpowered and assembled android approached Superboy in the distorted, dim light._

"Get out of there!"  
"Crap!"  
"Time to make like a tree Connor!"  
"What does that even mean?!"  
"It's a Back to the Future reference!"

 _Picking himself up off the ground, Superboy said, "Give me your best shot."_

 _"Please. My android has the strength of Superman. What chance do you have?" The professor told him in an easy, arrogant, self assured tone._  
 _Superboy attacked Amazo with a vengeance, and every blow was blocked except one, which did less than zero damage._

Groans sounded throughout the room; this was painful to watch.

 _"Oh, sorry. Did that strike a nerve?" Ivo asked, "Amazo, strike a few more."_

 _Amazo delivered a brutal punch, before saying, "Access Black Canary," and using her high pitched cries to attack Superboy's ears and toss him into the wall again._  
 _"Access Flash," Amazo said, punching Superboy with superspeed until he collapsed._

Wally, Artemis, and Robin were all yelling unintelligibly, and M'gann was tightly gripping Connor.

 _"Oh. No wonder daddy keeps you hidden away," Ivo's sleazy voice said, "You're not really doing justice to the old "S" shield, are you? Ha!"_

 _Superboy tried to come up with another punch, but Amazo said, "Martian Manhunter," and Superboy's punch went right through him, and just set him up for another brutal hit from Amazo; one that sent Superboy through the back of the train car, and into a bulldozer strapped to another train car behind it."_

"Oh my gosh!" Artemis exclaimed.  
"How are you even alive dude?!" Wally followed up.  
"It sucks watching and being able to do nothing!" Robin said, frustrated.

 _"Access Superman." Amazo said, picking Superboy up and punching him so hard that he sailed through the air, all the way into the window of a large building probably a half a mile away._

"Craaaaaaap!" Wally yelled, pulling his hair anxiously.  
"Wait, that's Gotham Academy!" Artemis exclaimed, while Robin swore.

 _Turns out it was a school Superboy had been hurled into, as he crashed into desks, his momentum slowing down until he completely rolled to a stop on the floor._

 _"Finish him. Priority alpha," Ivo ordered the android, which flew to Superboy's landing site._

 _The scene switched to Robin, who was just passing the Gotham City Limits on his motorcycle, clothed in his Robin uniform instead of his motorcycle-wear; not a moment later, Kid Flash sided up next to Robin, keeping pace with him._

"Nice of you to drop by," Robin told Wally, smiling.  
"Well I wasn't about to let you and Supey take ALL the credit,"

 _"So you changed, too?" Robin asked in greeting._  
 _"You kidding? I feel naked in civvies," Kid Flash replied, "You still tracking the parts?_

"Aaaaand here's where things are gonna get fun!" Artemis over-cheerfully stated.

 _"They were heading through Gotham, but they veered," Robin said, watching the parts moving on his map._

"Are they…"

"Ya."

 _"Wait…" Robin said, as the Amazo parts on the map approached a building on the digital labeled 'Gotham CIty Academy'._  
 _"Dude, they're at my school!" Robin exclaimed in absolute shock._

"Of ALL the places this showdown went down, of COURSE it happens at Robin's school," Wally said, laughing.  
"The school administrators had freaked," Robin told him, "But hey still had enough time to repair the damage before school started."

 _The scene switched to Gotham City Academy, where the camera was zoomed in on a picture of Richard Grayson holding a trophy, that said '2011 Gotham Academy Mathlete Honoree Dick Grayson'._

Everyone's gaze swiveled to Robin again, who just loudly shouted, "WHAT?!"  
Wally just snickered and coughed 'nerd', and if looks could kill Artemis would be the deadliest woman in the world. She started grumpily complaining/mumbling something that sounded like 'we'll laugh about this someday'.

 _The camera zoomed out, showing the whole trophy case…_

 _Which was completely shattered a moment later as Superboy was hurled into it by Amazo._

Robin put a hand to his heart at witnessing the destruction of the trophy case.  
"It's okay, be strong," Wally said, patting Robin's shoulder, fighting to keep a straight face, "be strong."  
"I'll try."  
"Would you two shut up?!"

 _Picked up again by the android, it hurled him into a row of lockers, one which had a drawing of Superman in it, with stars and hearts all around the hero._

"Traitor!" Robin shouted, at seeing the drawing, "And I know who you are!"  
"So you'd rather have the picture be Batman with a bunch of hearts and stars drawn around it, instead of Superman?" Wally asked, amused. This only earned him another elbow in the ribs.

 _Seeing the drawing, Superboy punched it in anger, his rage energizing him to attack Amazo again… but the android hit him before he could hit the android. Superboy was launched through the wall, and all the through a chemistry lab, where he hit the wall and fell to the ground….again._

Sounds of sympathy and frustration came from everyone as Connor was pummeled.  
"Man, if it'd been anyone else they'd be dead," Wally commented.  
"Like, 20 punches ago."

 _"That…all you got?" Superboy sassed, breathing heavy._

"No no no! Don't taunt him!"

 _"Access Captain Atom." Amazo said, the the bright laser-beam of light once again hit Superboy like a missile, launching him through the wall and into the gym._

"OH!"  
"AH!"  
"CRAP!"  
"ARE YOU OKAY?!"  
"Where the heck are the rest of you?! Get in there and help him!"

 _Sarcastic clapping came from the bleachers above Superboy; Ivo was there, with some of his monkeys._

 _"I don't usually attend these things in person, but this was too good to miss," the professor said._

"Oh you sicko." Robin disgustedly commented.

"Access Superman," Amazo said, and they once again began trading blows until Superboy was on the ground.

 _Amazo was about to deliver a decimating blow when Kid Flash yanked Superboy out of the way, adding his own sound effects with a "Yoink!"_

"FINALLY!" Artemis screeched, burying her face in her hands. This was too stressful.

 _Kid Flash and Superboy stopped next to Robin, who sent a birdarang at Amazo, who said "Martian Manhunter," and used density shifting for it to go right through him._

"Come on, come on!" M'gann exclaimed; her and Kaldur had arrived at the end of the fight, so this was entirely new and horribly suspenseful.

 _"Access Red Tornado," Amazo then said, and used the whirlwinds to fling the heroes into the air, landing painfully into a wall of the floor._

 _"Access Captain Atom,"; Kid Flash was able to run out of the way before the energy missile hit him. As he went around the other side of the android to try a different angle of attack, Amazo said, "Access Black Canary," and used the ear-splitting screams and the energy of the sound waves to repel the speedster's advance,_

Everyone who hadn't been there kept yelling advice to the Robin, Wally, and Connor, who kept going, "we're trying, we know!"

 _"Superman,"; Amazo repelled Superboy's attack, following up with "Martian Manhunter," as Robin hurled a birdarang at him, and the android used his arms like tentacles to knock them out of the air, and try to get Robin as well._

 _"Superman," the android accessed again, getting ahold of Kid Flash and crushing him._  
 _"Martian Manhunter," Amazo said, and an arrow headed for him went through his head, landing near Robin who looked at it, knowing that an arrow had no place being there._

"WHAT were you even doing there?!"  
"Just hang on, you're all still fighting!"  
"Thanks again, for, you know. That."  
"SSH, keep watching!"  
"Well no one is being quiet! Why shush me?!"

 _Amazo fended off Superboy again by hurling him into the bleachers, and then said "Superman," firing up his laser vision and directing it towards Robin, who wouldn't be able to move in time…_

"Move!" M'gann shrieked; the atmosphere was so tense, everyone was practically out of their seats.

 _Until Kid Flash threw himself bodily into Robin, his momentum carrying them into the air together; they landed hard on the ground, stunned from the impact._

"Oh thank goodness," Artemis breathed out, sagging into the cushions.

 _Superboy was picking himself up from the bleachers, breathing heavily and taking in the everything around him. Frowning slightly, he calmed down and said, to himself, "Access Black Canary."_

Wally was slapping Robin excitedly, M'gann hugged Connor, and Kaldur seemed extremely pleased.

 _"Oh, yawn," Ivo spoke up, looking bored, "Normally, Amazo would study and mimic your abilities during battle, but what's the point? You're all such poor copies of the originals."_

"Um, ouch."

 _"So everyone keeps saying," Superboy replied_  
 _"It makes me ANGRY!" he bellowed, and with a new strategy in mind, he attacked Ivo instead of the android._

"Atta boy!" "Get em!"  
"I told you so Wally!"  
"Whoo!"

 _"Want to see me channel that anger?" Superboy yelled,_

"YES!" The whole team, excluding Connor, yelled at once.

 _"Great, he's gone ballistic again," Kid Flash said, watching Superboy_  
 _"Maybe not," Robin contradicted, kneeling right next to the speedster._

 _"Amazo, protect your master!" Ivo ordered, trying to keep away from Superboy's advances,"Priority alpha!"_

 _While Amazo attacked Superboy with Captain Atom's power, Ivo's monkeys had picked him up off the ground to help him._

 _"Anyone want to play keepaway?" Robin asked, kicking Ivo out of the monkey's grasp._

"Kind of like you guys and Roy the other day?" Artemis asked, laughing.  
Wally and Robin were not amused.

 _"Me, me!" Kid Flash answered, making a Beeline towards Ivo, but he was countered by Amazo again, going airborne into the bleachers._

 _"Martian Manhunter," Amazo said, density shifting as a birdarang went right through him, and it was right after this moment that Superboy punched Amazo…as the android went to access another power, his form became solid again, with Superboy's fist straight through the metal head._

Shouts resounded from everyone, along the lines of "Yes yes come on you got it whoo!"

 _Amazo's head began sparking, then blew up; the android fell motionless on it's back._

The next line was almost unable to be heard from all the loud cheering.

 _"Help me disassemble him, now!" Robin yelled, racing to the android._

 _"Dude, the guy has no head." Kid Flash said in a 'you're overreacting' tone as he held his left arm._

Artemis laughed and went, "Oh, Wally. Don't take any chances!"  
"Are you okay?" M'gann asked him.  
"Well we were all a little beat up. Getting thrown into lockers and bleachers and stuff."

 _"Don't take any chances," Aqualad's voice suddenly said, as he and M'gann made an appearance._

"Hey, that's what she said!" M'gann exclaimed, not understanding why Wally busted out laughing, Robin was struggling not to do the same, and Artemis started hitting both of them.

 _M'gann landed next to Superboy and asked, worried, "Superboy, are you all right?"_

 _"I'm fine," he told her, than glanced at Robin as he added, "Feeling the aster." Robin gave him a genuine smile._

Robin grinned at Connor while the girls laughed.

 _"Hey! Where's Ivo?" Kid Flash pointed out still favoring his left arm._

 _The gym was empty of Professor Ivo and his dratted MONQIS._

"So…Wow."  
"Ya."  
"…I hate monkeys."

 _The screen showed the outside of the Cave, with the words 'Mount Justice August 1, 01:06 EDT going across the screen._

"So it took you guys how long to defeat Amazo, compared to the League?" Artemis asked, impressed.  
"Well, not 4 hours…" Connor said, kind of impressed himself.

 _"The Amazo android is in pieces again, safely being analyzed at the two separate S.T.A.R. labs, but Ivo escaped, and since he originated the tech, he's arguably more dangerous than the android." With the team standing around him, Aqualad reported to Batman, Black Canary, Martian Manhunter, Green Arrow, and Red Tornado._

"Did they really need that many of them there?" Artemis commented.

 _"Capturing the professor will be a League priority," Black Canary informed them._

 _"But we understand your mission encountered other complications," Martian Manhunter said._

"Well, SLIGHTY," Wally said, laughing  
"Just a flat tire," Robin continued.

 _"Complications come with the job. Your ability to handle them has impressed the League," Batman praised the team._

"Nice." Artemis agreed; compliments from Batman are not to be taken lightly.

 _"The whole League?" Superboy asked in a skeptical, and unconfident tone._

 _"Given time, yes," Batman told him, "Kryptonians, as you know, have very hard heads."_

Everyone, even Connor, laughed at this.

 _At this last comment, Superboy smiled a bit and glanced towards Black Canary._

 _"Of course, there's no shame in asking for help. That's why the League exists because there are some problems even we can't handle individually," Batman said._

 _"Please," Robin retorted in a 'I'm not buying this' tone, "If we needed help, we'd never get the chance to ask!"_

 _And then he pulled out the arrow that made an appearance during the battle with Amazo._

"…okay, where were you keeping that?" Artemis questioned, giving Robin a look.  
"I was wondering the same thing the other day when he took out a fricking ki-mph!" Wally started saying, but was cut off when Robin smacked him in the face with a pillow.

 _"Look familiar?" Robin asked, and Batman took it._

 _"You were following us! Babysitting! You still don't trust us!" Robin exclaimed, accusing the mentors._

"Well this is awkward."

 _"We didn't follow you," Batman stated, handing the arrow to Green Arrow, who pulled out one of his arrows to compare the two of them; they were of completely different design._

 _"And….that'sss… not your arrow." Robin observed out loud, with a 'wtf' look on his face._

While Wally and Artemis were cackling about this, Robin smacked both of them and told them to shut up.

 _"But that means -" Robin began, looking giddy,_

" _Speedy!" Kid Flash cut him off,_

 _"He has our backs," Aqualad continued, happy as well._

Robin, Wally, and Kaldur did a three way glance, in which they seemed to communicate without words.

"But if it was Speedy wouldn't he have had red arrows?" M'gann asked.

 _Kid Flash zoomed over to Green Arrow, grabbing the arrow from the mission out of his hands and declaring, "Souvenir!"_

"One that saved everyone's butt when the Reds attacked," Artemis said.

 _Batman and Green Arrow gave each other a look._

"Well they seem to know better. Thanks for filling us in guys." Robin complained.

 _Off to the side, Superboy cleared his throat to get Black Canary's attention._

"I'm ready." he simply said.

 _"Good. Because I'm here." Canary told him, ready to help and support in any way she could. Superboy smiled._

Grinning, Robin said, "Dinah is the best."  
"So now what?" Wally asked.  
"Next video, duuhhh…?!"  
"I cannot BELIEVE you are Richard Grayson!"  
"I was shocked too when I found out I was Richard Grayson."  
"Quit being a smartass."  
"Is anyone else concerned about when the League is going to nail us?"  
"Well honestly I'm more concerned about Batman finding out that you guys found out my name and then finding out that someone else who's somehow been filming us found out and that we found out about it and didn't let the League know right away."  
"….what?"

* * *

Son of a bitch these chapters are hard to do…Lol, sorry

Okay, so

This story is set about a week after the Season 1 finale, Artemis and Wally are a couple, and M'gann and Connor are a couple. This was originally in the description but I ended up having to delete it…SSHHhhh this story is supposed to be discontinued! Let's just say this chapter is just a long, farewell author's note…plus the next chapter….and the next chapter…

I will not be updating this on a schedule or monthly basis, cause I'm not making a promise I can't follow through on. But hang in there guys, I'll get it done one chapter at a time!

Credit to cocopops1995 for the POTATO thing in the beginning!

Thanks for all the support for this story everyone, it makes it that much easier to get through a chapter at a time :)


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